When Darkness Falls

Well, I have a very disturbing message to bring before you this evening, friends. It's difficult for me to preach it because of its terrifying subject. It'll more than likely trouble some of you who are not accustomed to searching sermons in the pulpits in America today.

Stand men who rather hand you a balm to soothe your ache and conscience than give you bitter medicine to cure you, to awaken you to your great danger of dying in your sins and being thrust suddenly into the dark inferno of hell. The title of my message this evening, friends, is When Darkness Falls. And if you stay with me through it, you may be one who is pulled from the fire.

My Bible says it is appointed unto man wants to die. But after this, the judgment, the subject of my message tonight is facing death and eternity. Most folks are prepared to die.

And certainly the majority of individuals are unprepared for eternity. I want to tell you friends about a true story. There was a medical doctor by the name of Maurice Rawlings.

He was a cardiologist with the UT School of Medicine in Chattanooga, Tennessee, who had critically ill patients in the coronary care units of several hospitals. Well, this man, Rawlings, was an atheist who became a Christian when he was confronted with patients who had survived a death experience through resuscitation. And they related to him how they had passed into the regions of hell before they were brought back to life by medical technology.

This cardiologist said that before he'd always viewed death as a painless extinction until he learned from reading the Bible and getting saved that he said, and I quote, I found it's really not safe to die. This man, Dr. Rawlings, wrote two books, friends, on the clinical accounts of his own patients who died and went to hell. Maurice Rawlings' first book, which was a bestseller, was called Beyond Death's Door, and his second book was called To Hell and Back, because that's what happened to his patients.

They went to hell and back. Listen, friends, I've read both those books several times through the years, and they always disturb me. He said his patients, while clinically dead on the table, their faces would grimace, their eyes would dilate.

And when they came back, they would describe the most horrific scenes of hell and its miseries. They would speak fearfully of the hideous faces of demons they saw there in hell. Oh, one lady who died of a heart attack said she was led through a dark tunnel by a big oversized demon, while little demons scurried by her feet like hungry rats.

Oh, one account of a death experience was of a teenage girl who tried to end her life by taking a bottle of aspirin. She went to a coma, and once the ambulance got her to the hospital, heart massage was performed on her until she was brought out of that coma. But she kept crying, Mama, help me.

Make them let me go. Mama, make them let me go. The doctors tried to apologize for hurting her, but she said it wasn't the doctors, but them, those demons in hell.

They won't let me go. Those demons, they want me. I can't get back.

Help me. It's awful. Well, that young lady eventually got saved and became a missionary, and she served God with a passion for she knew what hell was like.

She'd seen a glimpse of it. Well, I'm going to give you a glimpse of hell tonight, friends, to awaken some of you. I'll show you your lost condition, because I agree with Dr. Rawlings that for most folks, it's not safe to die.

For when they come to die, they come up to darkness. When that darkness begins to overspread their soul, as they come to the brink of eternity and darkness takes over, it's too late to turn back then. As men fall into death, as men fall from a steep hill, not knowing where they shall fall, as all is darkness, as they tumble down into the bottomless pit of hell itself.

The title of my message this evening, friends, is When Darkness Falls. And please stay with me while I do my best to bring this message before you, friends, because the devil does not want you to hear it. He will try to distract your attention while I preach it.

He'll put other thoughts in your mind while I'm trying to warn you of your great danger of dying in darkness and being carried into the netherworld of hell. You young people, pay attention to me because the devil will keep you on your cell phone so you won't hear a word I say. Hear me now.

Your very life is in jeopardy. You could die in a car wreck tonight and your soul could be carried away into eternity. In eternity, you are quite unprepared for, I say, carried away.

Allow me to explain, friends. There is a reliable story about the famous British preacher, Charles Spurgeon. When it came time for him to die, he was in a hotel in Manton, France, and in bed in that hotel room, close to death, while his aide, Joseph Harold, was standing in the lobby of the hotel looking out the window while Spurgeon lay upstairs dying.

This man, Joseph Harold, told the story as true to his own dying day. He said that as he looked out the window of that hotel lobby, he saw in the distance, beneath a cloudless sky, a bevy of angels hovering in the air as if they were waiting for someone. They didn't have long to wait as the great Spurgeon died within the hour.

My Bible says in the Gospel of Luke that when a believer dies, that angels carry a soul up to heaven. In Luke 16, 22, we read that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. I believe that, friends, that when a Christian dies, angels carry that person's soul up to heaven.

I also believe that when an unsaved person dies, that demons drag that person down to hell. I believe when you lay dying, a flock of demons will come into your room and crawl by your bedside like crazed hyenas, drooling and salivating for their prey, ready to bust in on as soon as the door of death is opened, and then to snatch you up and drag you down to a devil's hell. Some of you may remember the old TV show, Little House on the Prairie.

It was said by a family member of the actor, Michael Landon, that while he was dying in the hospital, he kept flailing his arms around his head in terror, trying to push away unseen presence that would not stop grabbing at him until he died. Oh, when darkness falls on you, friend, where will you go? Where will you go? Will you go to heaven or will you go to hell? You can be suddenly removed from this world without warning, friends. My Bible says in Ecclesiastes, for man also knoweth not his time as the fishes that are taken in an evil net and as the birds that are caught in the snare.

So are the sons of men snared in an evil time when it falls suddenly upon them. That's why my message to you this evening is called, When Darkness Falls, because this darkness of death falls suddenly, friends, when you least expect it. I came close to dying suddenly last year.

I had an appendicitis attack and was rushed to the hospital. And when I came out of anesthesia, I couldn't breathe. I kept hollering, I can't breathe, I can't breathe.

And they tell me my heart failed and my daughter said I was turning gray as I came close to dying. But God wasn't through with me yet, friends, or I wouldn't be here speaking to you tonight. And I'm here to warn you, to warn you of your great danger of dying in your sins and going to a devil's hell when darkness falls on you.

Believe me, friends, you don't want demons pulling on you to drag you down to that nether world of darkness and flames. Jesus described hell as outer darkness, a bottomless pit, a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth where the worm never dies, meaning hell is forever. Oh, why don't you shut up in there, friend? You can never get out for all eternity.

It's a prison. It's a chamber of horrors, friend, that you don't want to go to. Four things will happen to you and that are certain as the sun rises tomorrow.

Number one, your day will come in your life when darkness falls and you are dispatched from this world by death. Number two, your date of repentance is over. It'll be too late then, friend, for the no second chances for the dead.

Number three, your judgment is certain as you face the God of eternity as your judge and your doom is sealed and read and your sentence is carried out. Number four, your soul will be bound with chains of darkness and cast into a dark, hot furnace where flames burn with the outpoured wrath of God, for you will be locked up in that chamber of horrors called hell. Hear me now, friends.

Demons will claw at you like that girl crying, Mama, Mama, help me. Make them let go of me. There'll be no one to help you, friends, as demons have their way with you in a region of torments that you can never escape from.

Let me ask you, friend, to face the music in your life right now in regard to where you'll spend eternity. Are you saved or are you lost? I want you to do something now, friends. Do me a favor right now, friends.

I want you to take out a pen and a piece of paper or take your pen and write it in the margin of your Bible if you have your Bible with you or write it on your notes or your cell phone, but I want you to write one word, one word that pertains to you. Either write the word saved or the word lost. Do that now, friends.

Are you saved or are you lost? If you're lost, wouldn't you want to know it now while you still have time to do something about it? I'd want to know if I were lost. I'd want to know now before it was too late for me. Did you write your word down that describes your soul's condition? Did you write saved or did you write lost? Maybe you didn't write anything.

Maybe you're not there yet. Maybe God's still dealing with you and you need convincing. Well, I will continue, friends.

Will you die from apart from Christ and enter that region of the damned where lost souls are wailing like banshees with ears splitting cries across a raging troubled sea? Listen, friend, when your day is past and it's time for you to die and darkness begins to overspread your soul, it'd be too late then. Once your time of repentance has passed you and God's spirit no longer strides with you and you cross over that threshold of death, you'll bust hell wide open like a cannonball going through a paper wall. Turn to Christ, friend, before it's too late.

Turn to the Lord Jesus now for pardon for sin as your savior from sin before you die without him and then face him as your judge. Listen to the following pleas from God's word. Hear me now, friends.

Listen. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near.

Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. Listen, friends. Jesus came to this world to reconcile sinners back to God the Father by dying as a substitute for sin on Calvary's cross.

On that cross hung a bloodstained savior for sin. Look at that man on the cross, friend. He is lifted up from the earth with his arms outstretched to receive you, but you must come to him.

Look at those nails in his hands, those nails in his feet. He was fastened on that cross so I could live. Look at that man Jesus on the cross who loved me and gave himself for me.

His saving power flows out to all who come in repentance, confessing they are sinners and own them as their Savior and Lord. Listen to him, friends, as he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me.

I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Come to Christ, friend, and he has a pure gospel promise to all who come in sincerity of heart to him for salvation, for sin, and him that cometh to me I will unknowwise cast out.

When darkness falls and it's your time to die, friend, make dead certain you are safe in the arms of Jesus. I'm gonna sing an old gospel hymn, friend, and if God's Spirit has been dealing with your heart tonight, then don't delay. Get to Christ who is the pearl of great price.

He's worth having, friend. He's worth selling all for so he may be gained. Christ Jesus is the only remedy and refuge for sin.

Don't delay, friend. Don't let him pass you by. Don't let Jesus pass you by.

If he's been dealing with you tonight, if the Spirit of God's been convicting you and awakening you and speaking to you, then come to him, friend. Jesus is the friend of sinners. Listen, friend, as I sing.

Pass me not, O gentle Savior, hear my humble cry, While on others thou art calling, do not pass me by. Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry, While on others thou art calling, do not pass me by. Let me at a throne of mercy find a sweet relief.

Kneeling there in deep contrition, help my unbelief. Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry, while on others thou art calling, do not pass me by. Trusting only in thy merit, would I seek thy face.

Heal my wounded, broken spirit. Save me by thy grace. Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry, While on others thou art calling, do not pass me by.