Would you turn with me to John
chapter nine? Verse four. I must work the works of him
that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man can work. I've entitled this message God
works. In the night. The night cometh when no man. Can work now this statement by
our Lord has a finality to it. The night cometh. And nothing
can stop it. And the Lord is speaking primarily
of the night he was getting ready to experience. When he says the
night. Look over in John chapter 13. This is when Judas went out to
betray our Lord. We read in verse 30. He then
having received the sop, went immediately out and it was night. Now that means a whole lot more
than it was the sun had gone down. It was night. Night means darkness. We just read that from Genesis
chapter one and the darkness he called night. Night is darkness when you cannot
see. The Lord tells us that when the
night comes, no man has the ability to work. The night cometh when
no man can work. Now, while it's true that no
man can work in the night, it's also true that there is one who
can and does work at night. God does his greatest work in
the night when no man can work. Now, we can trace this throughout
the scriptures. When God created the universe,
it was a command for the light to shine out of darkness. Remember that passage of scripture
in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, 6, where Paul says, God, who commanded
the light to shine out of the darkness, has shined in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And no man can work in the darkness,
but God can and does. And you know, I find this to
be glorious. I love that hymn we sing, holy, holy, holy, though
the darkness hide thee. Though the eye of sinful man
thy glory may not see, only thou art holy. There is none beside
thee perfect in power, in love and purity. You see, you and
I can't see in the dark, but he can. Listen to this. Psalm 139 verse 12 says, yea,
the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as
the day. The darkness and the light are
both alike to thee. God does his greatest works in
the night. God does his greatest work at
night when no man is awake. can work. Now what the Lord Jesus
is primarily referring to is the night he was getting ready
to enter when he says the night cometh. He's not talking about
sundown. He's talking about the night he was preparing to enter. Would you turn with me to Luke
chapter 22? Luke chapter 22. verse 32, I'm sorry, verse 52, Luke 22,
52. Then Jesus said unto the chief
priests and the captains of the temple and the elders, which
were come to him as all the religious fellows that came after him.
He wasn't talking about the rabble risers. He was talking about
the religious fellows. They came after him. And he says,
be ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves. When
I was daily with you in the temple, you stretched forth no hands
against me, but this is your hour and the power of darkness. Our Lord was getting ready to
enter into darkness himself. Now, what darkness are you talking
about? Well, look there in Luke 22, look at verse 41. This is when he was in Gethsemane's
garden. Verse 41, and he was withdrawn from them about a stone's
cast, and he kneeled down and prayed, saying, Father. If thou be willing. Remove this cup. For me. Nevertheless, not my
will, but thine be done, and there appeared an angel unto
him from heaven, strengthening him. and being in agony. He prayed more earnestly and
his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to
the ground. Now, when we read of what took
place in Gethsemane's garden, this is when our Lord entered
into the night, into darkness, where darkness actually entered
into his soul to where he couldn't see. Now, Somebody says, how
could that be true concerning the God man? I don't know. I
don't know how to explain that. But this is talking about the
darkness of his soul. Now, when he walked upon this
earth. What light he brings. His life was the life of light,
and, you know, I was thinking about this right before preaching
on this, I was thinking about what's the light of his life?
Well, first of all, he kept the law. You know, when I look at God's
holy law, I think it's interesting. When God came down onto Mount
Sinai, what happened? It was dark, thunderous, thick,
blackness and darkness. The voice of words, big sounds.
Everybody was scared to death. They couldn't see. They couldn't
approach. And you know, even regarding
God's holy law, when I talk about God's holy law, I've got so much
darkness about it until I see Him keeping it. Now, when our
Lord, walked upon this earth, God, the Son of God, became flesh. God became man. God, the God-man,
he kept God's holy law. And I get some light as to the
law when I see him keeping it. I don't have any light anywhere
else, but when I see him keeping it. He loved God with all of
his heart. He loved his neighbors himself.
He's the only one to ever do this. He never committed idolatry. He put no God before his Father.
He's the only man to ever keep the Sabbath. And oh, how he honored
his father and his mother and his heavenly father. He never
committed sexual sin, not even in his mind or heart. He's the
only man to never sin. He never lied. He never killed.
He never had anger without a cause. He never coveted. He never stole. what light we have regarding
God's law when we see Him keeping it. I just get confused in any
other way, but when I see Him keeping, I get some light in
what He did. He did as a representative man.
You see, he didn't have to be under that law. He's the lawgiver.
But he willingly placed himself under that law to keep the law
as a representative for somebody. That's what he was doing while
he walked upon this earth. Well, that's lie, isn't it? I
see God's law being kept. I look at myself and I find nothing
but darkness. But when I see him keeping the
law, I get some light regarding God's holy law. And now he enters
into Gethsemane. And the scripture says he was
in agony. The darkness has begun to enter
into his soul. Now what's that all about? Well,
he kept the law for somebody. He obeyed God's law perfectly
and honored God's holy law. But he came as the sinner's substitute. And this is when sin was placed
upon him. As the sinner's substitute, darkness
entered into his soul. What happened when the Lord was
on the cross? The sun quit shining, didn't
it? Scripture says there was darkness
over all the earth. The sun actually quit shining. The sun protested as it saw its
maker nailed to a tree. But more than that, that lets
us know that really what I'm talking about, we're all in the
dark about. We're just in the dark. I don't
understand what was going on the cross. I have some slight
understanding. I know that he was made sin.
I know the sins of the elect became his and darkness entered
into his soul. He became the sin bearer. He was made sin. The sins and
iniquities of us all were laid upon him. All of his people,
they were placed upon him and darkness entered into his soul
in the sense that he felt the the guilt of it. He felt the
shame of it. He felt forsaken by his father
because he was forsaken by his father. He had no light. He who is light had no light. He said the darkness cometh and
indeed the darkness came upon him. Can we understand this? No. No, we can't. What he was doing was between
him and his father. You and I were shut out. This
great transaction that was taking place, he was doing business
with his father. And all we can believe. Do you believe that darkness
came into his soul? You know, the greatest light
we have is seeing his darkness. That's what he's talking about
when he's talking about the night cometh, the darkness cometh.
When did God pass through the land of Egypt? Anybody remember?
What's the scripture say? At midnight. at the darkest time. You see, God does His great work
at night, in the dark. And our Lord passed through Egypt
at midnight. And nobody could see Him passing
through. They couldn't see the blood.
They were in the house, weren't they? But God saw the blood. You see,
God can see at night. And He's the one who saw the
blood. But His great work of salvation, His work of condemnation,
this was the condemnation of the Egyptians. This was the salvation
of the Israelites. It was done at night when no
one could see. But God could see. Now at midnight, the Egyptians were condemned.
They rejected the only remedy, the blood. They rejected it. And they were condemned. But
at this time of midnight, all of God's people were saved. They were in the house with the
blood over the door. The greatest light we have is
seeing the Lord's darkness. Truly indeed, no man can work
at night, but God does his great work at night. Now, There is his great work
in the soul of the sinner he saves. Now we see where he did
his great work at night when no man could work. And that has
to do with the cross, how He became in total darkness, bearing
the sins of His people, suffering all the punishments of hell,
suffering all the horror of hell, suffering all the darkness of
hell. You know, hell itself is called what? Eternal darkness. The blackness of mist forever
is what it's called. And you can't see in the dark.
Our Lord was actually brought into a place where He could not
see. What light I have here though,
that perfect law keeping that He did, it's counted to me. Just as truly as He became sin
for me, His righteousness becomes mine, truly mine. That's my light
before God. But let's keep on talking about
how God does His work at night. We see His work of salvation
was at night. Well, when the Lord does a work of grace in
the heart of a sinner, He saves. Before they come to know the
Lord, they feel like they're in the daylight. They see, so
they think. They see how they can be saved.
I can be saved whenever I get ready. Whenever I decide to believe,
I can be saved. Whenever I decide to repent,
I can be saved. Now, I might not have done it yet, but I probably
will one of these days, and it's within my power. I can do something
to change things. I see how I can be saved. I see
what I need to do. Maybe I haven't done it, but
I see what I need to do. I've got some sight. Before God
saves somebody, they think they have some light. But when God
turns the lights on, they're brought into darkness. They're
brought to where they cannot see a thing. When was it that
the Apostle Paul saw? When he was blinded. He saw fine
until he was blinded by the light. What blinded him? Light did. And when he saw the light, he
was blinded. When he finally had some life,
all of a sudden he was brought into darkness where he could
not see. Now, when God turns the lights
on in somebody's heart, they're made to see that salvation by
works is impossible for them. The night comes when no man can
work. They're in darkness. They can't
see one reason as to why God would save them. They see themselves
as altogether filthy. They can't see why God would
ever look in mercy on them. Have you ever been brought into that
place, that place of darkness, where you can't see why God would
ever save you? You don't complain about salvation. Well, for instance, before you
have any life, before you're brought into darkness, maybe
you complain with election. How can it be fair for God to
choose to save some and pass by the others? That doesn't seem
fair to me. Why, he's violating our rights. Everybody has a right
to be saved. Everybody has a right to God's love. He's showing favoritism. He shouldn't be doing this. How
can God be fair? He ought to be saving me. How
could it be fair that he loves Jacob and hates Esau. It seems
like he's not giving Esau his due. I mean, everybody ought
to have God's love. I mean, doesn't God love everybody?
That doesn't seem fair. That seems wrong. And to say
that Christ died only for the elect? to say that he didn't
die for everybody? Well, that's certainly not fair.
Did he do something for one and not do it for the other? Well,
that doesn't seem fair at all. And you say that he's the first
cause behind everything and in control of everything and that
means if I sin that he allowed it, well, how could he hold me
responsible for it if it was all part of his plan and he's
the first cause behind everything? How's all that fair? You see,
when When you think you have light, you object to God's salvation. You object to God's way of saving.
You object to his word. But when God brings you into
darkness, and this is the blessing of his grace, you can't see why he would ever
look in favor toward you. You really believe that. You
really believe that he cast you off eternally into devil's hell? You'd be getting exactly what
you deserve. You believe that? You really
believe you deserve to go to hell? I know we'll all initially
say yes, but I mean, do you really believe it? Do you really believe
if God dropped you into hell and showed you no mercy, he would
be just and holy and glorious in doing it? That's what it means
to be in the dark. You can't see a reason as to
why God would look in mercy on you. You see, it's only when
the soul is brought into that state of darkness that they're
now a candidate for mercy. That person who has no light,
That person who can't see one reason why God would save them,
now there's a person who needs mercy. And that person is a candidate
for mercy. When we were yet without strength,
in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Now that person is ready
to hear the gospel. Now you never see until you're
blinded. God works in the night. Now, faith itself only works
at night. Faith is believing what you cannot
see. If you can see, faith is not
necessary. Is it? What do you need to believe? I mean, if you can see, you don't
need faith. Now, here's what faith is. Faith
is actually relying on Him whom I've never seen. Faith is believing
the Word of Him that I've never heard His voice audibly. Faith
is trusting somebody I've never seen. Faith is believing I am
what I cannot see. I cannot see that I'm holy. I really can't. Now, I am holy. If I'm a believer, I am. But
I can't see that I'm holy. But I believe I am because His
Word tells me I am. I can't see that I'm justified
before God. I can't see that. What does justification
mean? Justification means not guilty.
It's not just as if I never sinned. If I'm justified, I never sinned.
I'm not guilty. Now, I can't see that in my experience
because in my experience, all I do is sin. That's what I see
in myself. But faith sees into the dark.
I really believe that what Christ did on the cross is enough to
make me without sin. That's what faith sees into Christ's
darkness. I see His darkness is my light.
I see His righteousness makes me just before God. Faith is
believing what you cannot see. You see, faith only works in
the dark. It doesn't work in the light.
It only works in the dark. God does His work in the dark
at night. And I can say this to the believer.
The night comes when no man can work even to a believer. You're going to be brought to
the place even as a believer where you can't see a thing. Now hear me. You're in darkness. You have no visible evidence
that you even know God. You feel as though you're in
Egyptian darkness, even darkness that might be felt. Would you
turn with me to Isaiah chapter 50? Isaiah chapter 50, verse
10. Who is among you that feareth
the Lord? That obeyeth the voice of his
servant. You really believe the gospel.
You fear the Lord and you believe the gospel. But look what it
says next. That walketh in darkness. And hath no light. Now that's a pretty rough place
to be, isn't it? To walk in darkness, it says
you've got no light. As far as your experience goes,
you've got no light. Well, what is that person directed
to do? Let him trust in the name of
the Lord and stay upon his God. Even when you can't see, even
when you're in darkness, trust the name of the Lord. Really
believe the name of the Lord Jesus is enough to bring you
into glory with no help from you. Behold, he says in verse
11, all ye that kindle a fire, you make a light, that compass
yourselves about with sparks, walk in the light of your fire.
You know, a lot of folks do that. They build them up a fire they
can see by, their works and so on. He says, go ahead and walk
in the light of your fire and the sparks that you have kindled.
This year you have of mine hand, you shall lie down in sorrow. If you're a believer, you're
in light. But I have no doubt that in your
experience, you're going to find times when you're in nothing
but darkness and can't see a thing. And you have no evidence that
God's even done anything for you. You feel alone and forsaken. Now what is that person walking
in darkness called upon to do? Trust. in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. What's His name? The Lord Our
Righteousness. Trust in His name at all times. God does His work. His work of
preserving His people in faith at night. God works in the night
and only in darkness. Listen to this. Only when you're
in complete darkness that He's speaking of here can you really
trust the Lord. When you have nowhere else to
lean, nowhere else to trust, nowhere else to turn. When you're
in the night like this, this is when you trust the name of
the Lord. I love that hymn we sing, when
darkness veils his lovely face, I rest in his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil on Christ, the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. And how our glorious Lord returned. Remember, we're talking about
his great works are done at night. He created the universe from
darkness. His great work of salvation He
did at night. This thing of faith, believing
God, is believing what you cannot see. You're trusting Him whom
you can't see. You're in the dark in that sense.
You even have a darkness brought into your soul that makes you
lean totally on Christ. Now that's His work of faith.
How's He going to return? That's the next thing I think
of His great work. How's He going to return? I love
this scripture. It says He'll return as a thief
in the night. When He returns, the black backdrop
of the midnight sky is going to be as lightning in the sky
and everybody's going to see Him at that time. And at that
time, at that time, we're going to see what we believe to be
true. When He returns, I'm going to
see Him as He is. I'm going to rejoice in Him as
He is. I'm going to trust Him as he
is. To think of seeing him as he
is, you know what's going to happen in me seeing him as he
is, what scripture says? I'm going to be like him. Now,
I believe I'm like him right now. I can't see it. But because of union with His
person, I believe I'm like Him right now. I believe when God
looks upon me, He sees somebody as without sin, perfect, just
like the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that. I'm going to see it then. When He returns, we'll see Him
in all of His glory and we'll finally see ourselves as we believe
ourselves to be justified. sanctified and glorified, faith
will be turned into sight and there will be no more night. Now at that time when he returns
in the night, in the midnight sky, eternal darkness will begin
for those who have no faith. Now this is a solemn, solemn
thing to think about. I don't know much about hell.
I mean, I read the descriptions of it in the scripture. I know
that God is holy and there is a hell. There is a place where
he's going to punish those who do not believe on his son. You
know who talked about hell more than anybody else? The Lord Jesus
Christ. Do you know in all the writings
of the Apostle Paul, not one time does he use the word hell?
I believe he thought it to be so terrible that he just trembled
at using the word. Our Lord Jesus Christ talked
about hell more than anybody else. Now there is a place called
hell. And you know how the scripture
describes it? Eternal darkness. And what I thought about was
just, can you imagine being in a dark place for a year and never
seeing any light? A dark place for 50 years and
never seeing any light? A dark place for eternity and
having no light. Hell will begin when our Lord
comes back. Hell, an eternity of hell begins
for all those who do not believe the gospel. That's when hell
begins. But you know what? An eternal
light begins for God's people. Turn with me to Revelation chapter
21. Verse 25, let's begin reading verse 22. John says, and I saw no temple
therein for the Lord God almighty and the lamb are the temple of
it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon,
to shine in it. For the glory of God did light
it. And the Lamb is the light thereof.
And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light
of it. And the kings of the earth do
bring their glory and honor into it. And the gates of it shall
not be shut at all by day, for there shall be," what? No night
there. Look in chapter 22. Verse three, and there shall
be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall
be in it and his servant shall serve him and they shall see
his face. And his name. Shall be in their
foreheads. And there shall be no night there.
You see, faith will be turned to sight. And they need no candle,
neither light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light,
and they shall reign forever and ever. Now, God works at night. I think that's clear from this
scripture, and I think it's altogether glorious that He does so. God
works at night. And it takes faith to believe
what He does, and that's His gift. But listen to this scripture. This is the scripture I want
to leave you with thinking about. Weeping, David said in Psalm
38, weeping may endure for a night. And it will. And it does. But joy cometh in the morning. That's the promise to every child
of God. God does His great work at night. I can't see, but I believe. Well, may God give us His light. I'm sitting here trying to talk
about things that I Let's put it this way, the only
way anybody's going to understand anything I said is if God gives them light.
And if He does, we'll see. Let's pray together.