It is Darkest Before the Dawn

Well, good afternoon, everyone! Happy Sabbath! Isn't it nice and warm and toasty in here? We're having a balmy, I think, 27 degrees in East Texas today. But I got here before all the storm came in. I've discovered something we hardly ever use in East Texas. It's called heated seats. I have them on our vehicles, but we never use them. I've been using it on the rental I have this week. I can assure you that. It's very nice to be here with you today. I pastor congregations in East Texas at Big Sandy and congregation in Texarkana, Texas, and also in Ruston, Louisiana. So it's very nice to be here with you today.

Perhaps you are familiar with this old saying. It's been around for, you know, 300 years or so. It goes like this. It says, it is darkest before the dawn. Are you familiar with that one? It is darkest before the dawn. Now, some people think this saying is from the Bible.

It is not. It's not in there. It is just a, how shall we say, a wee bit of Irish folk wisdom. And the saying also is not true literally, because the darkest time of night is exactly halfway between dusk or dawn or sunrise or sunset. I think you would understand that makes good sense.

But the purpose of this saying is very good. It's a very encouraging saying, and it's meant to encourage people. It's meant to inspire people who are going through terrible trials and dark times in their lives. It can also help people that are having a lot of anxiety or distress and despair because of situations in life. The saying you see reminds us that the dark times of our trials will not last forever. But like the certainty of the light of the coming dawn is a certainty that there will be better times. There will be better times when the darkness of the trial is passed.

It will surely come. Now what we might also find interesting about this saying, it is darkest before the dawn, is that this saying finds real meaning. It finds real meaning and real hope through God's Scriptures, through His Word. You see, into the darkness of our human lives, God sent the light.

He sent Jesus Christ in His gospel of salvation, in the gospel of the kingdom of God. And in our trials and tribulations, God wants us to seek Him, to believe and obey Him, to keep His commandments, to practice His way of life, to hold fast to the light and to the truth of His Word.

And if we are faithful, and if is a very important little English word, isn't it? And if we are faithful, God will surely help and deliver us in our need. He'll deliver us in our trials. And as we will see today, God's Word infuses into this old saying, real meaning, again, and real hope. The title of the sermon, excuse me, split sermon, is, It is Darkest Before the Dawn. It is Darkest Before the Dawn. Now, Scripture reveals that God has been giving humanity hope in dark and troubled times since the very beginning.

Since the very beginning. Genesis three, I'm sure you're familiar with the tale. Genesis three tells us of how the serpent, or Satan, deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden. He deceived Eve into choosing to eat the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam, who is not deceived, what did he do? He chose the fruit as well. They chose, they made the choice, to disobey God. They sinned and earned sins wages of death and all the various sorrows and terrible troubles that come along with disobeying God.

They separated themselves from the source of eternal life. And all humanity, including you and me, have been following along in their way, making choices according to our will, deciding for ourselves what is good and evil, instead of following the instruction of God. Now God judged Adam and Eve, and he judged Satan. Yet in declaring his judgment upon Satan, God also gave humanity hope.

God gave humanity hope in the form of a prophecy about a descendant of Adam and Eve, a Redeemer, a prophecy about one who could buy them back and make possible the way to eternal life. You may be familiar. Let's look at Genesis 3 verse 15. Genesis 3.15. And here, God the Lord was speaking to Satan, and he said verse 15, And I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed.

He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

And of course, when we look at this verse, it's typically understood that the seed, perhaps in your translation of the Bible, the seed where it says between your seed and her seed, that seed referring to the seed of Adam and Eve, it is uppercased. And it hints that this seed would be the one we're speaking of here, the Redeemer, the Messiah, as we know as Jesus Christ. The idea that he shall bruise your heel, referring to the Redeemer, Christ, the idea that he would crush the head of Satan, crush his government, crush his leadership, crush his control over this world. And Satan, in turn, would bruise the heel, bruise his heel. That's often related to the time when Jesus Christ suffered terribly and was crucified. And yes, he died, but he is resurrected three days and three nights later into a glorious resurrection, and he now sits at the right hand of our Father, making your session for us, for all of God's people. But the emphasis I want to draw our attention to here is that in humanity's first darkest moment, humanity's first darkest moment, and there'll be many others you might argue, in that moment God provided a first glimmer of hope, a first glimmer of hope like the light of dawn, the hope of redemption from sin and death through Jesus Christ. And this pattern you see, this pattern of light, of the light of hope, amidst the darkness of human troubles and suffering, it's found throughout Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. It's just endless, the number of examples. And of course, each of our lives can provide examples of that principle as well.

Let's look a little bit into some specific examples of this pattern. We find the pattern, for example, in the account of Hannah. In the account of Hannah. Let's turn to 1 Samuel chapter 1.

1 Samuel chapter 1.

And again, we're looking at examples to support this idea's darkest before the dawn. And we're going to look at Hannah's example now. Hannah, you may recall, was in a rather difficult, and you could say very difficult dark time in her life as we read about her here in 1 Samuel 1. She was one of two wives of Elkanah. Hannah was barren. And in that day and age, in that society, to be a woman and unable to have children was a terrible thing. Some probably thought she must be a terrible person. She must be cursed of God. That's not true at all, but that's how sometimes people think. In Hannah, we understand grief to have children. Now, the other wife, Peninah, she had children. So obviously, the problem wasn't with Elkanah, the husband. The problem was with Hannah. And Peninah constantly sounds like was just cruelly treating Hannah. We can only imagine the sort of emotional abuse that poor woman had to put up with for quite a long time. And one day in her despair, Hannah vowed to God that if he would give her his son, she would dedicate him to God for all the days of his life. And let's just look at verse 10 here. 1 Samuel 1 verse 10. Just get a sense of this trial she was experiencing. Verse 10 and it says, and Hannah was in bitterness of soul. That's a very low, dark place to be. She was in bitterness of soul and prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish.

Now, Hannah did what we should always do in our trials, didn't she? She took her troubles to God. She took her troubles to God. And what did God do? What was God's part? God heard. God heard and answered her prayer. And Hannah, we know, bore a son, and she named that son Samuel, which means asked of God. And after he is weaned, Hannah proved her faithfulness and gratitude to God when she kept her vow and she gave Samuel to God to serve him. And Hannah praised God in prayer. Let's look at the second chapter of 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel 2, verse 8 through 9. And this is a song of Hannah. It's a prayer, but it's also filled with some prophecy. 1 Samuel 2, verse 8 through 9, she says, He, referring to the Lord, He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the beggar from the ash heap to set them among princes and make them inherit the throne of glory. Isn't that interesting? And continuing verse 9, she says, He, the Lord, will guard the feet of his saints, but the wicked shall be silent in darkness. We see this play of light and dark again. And so we see in the darkness of her despair, Hannah trusted God and she stayed faithful. And God blessed her not only with Samuel, but if you read on down in verse 21 of the same chapter, He also blessed her with three more sons and two daughters.

God bless Hannah, you see, with benevolence that she could not have imagined, and that is the way our God is. Now another individual, King David. King David also experienced God's benevolence and mercy through the dark times of his life. And yes, David had a lot of difficult times, didn't he? A lot of difficult and troublesome times. Remember those years he spent hiding from King Saul and his army who wanted to kill him. But perhaps the darkest time in David's life had to do with the matter of that terrible sin he brought upon himself. He brought a terrible trial upon himself. Imagine a person bringing a trial upon themselves. We understand, don't we? That terrible time, that terrible trouble he brought upon himself was through his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, Uriah the Hittite. You can read about that in 2 Samuel, verse 11 and 12.

I'm not going to rehearse the whole story with you. It's been a while since you read it. You might want to go back and read it. But at the point when Nathan the prophet, there's a point when Nathan the prophet comes to David and confronts him and he chases him, chases him with the ugly truth. David is horrified and he is disgusted by the enormity of his sin. What was his sin? Well, a short list includes coveting, adultery, murder, lying and deception, and we can tack on some more. But David, when he's finally confronted about his sin, David does something quite wonderful. He makes no excuses, but he instantly confesses. And he says there in 2 Samuel 12, verse 13, David says, I have sinned against the Lord. And we learn that God would later forgive him, but that didn't take away the consequences. There are many, many dire consequences to David's sin, his action. In Psalm 51, if you want to turn there with me in Psalm 51, Psalm 51 records David's prayer of repentance, and it's directly related, as the subtitle tells us, to this sin he had committed. In Psalm 51, this prayer of repentance, David expresses, we can see how he recognized the blackness of sin in his life. And he earnestly sought God's forgiveness. He was in a dark spot, like many of us in our sins. And yet he knew God, he trusted God, he knew God could forgive him. He trusted in that light, that hope of God. In verse 1, let's just read verse 1 through 4, and David says, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me for my sin, for I acknowledge, I confess my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. And against you, you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight, that you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge. He placed himself entirely at God's mercy. It's the only place he could go. Where else could he go? You see, sin is a terrible darkness. Sin is a terrible darkness in the cause of many trials. And David did what we should always do. He confessed his sin to God, and he repented. He turned from his sin to seek the light, the hope of God's forgiveness. And again, we see another powerful example for us. There's light in the darkness. Now, if you turn with me to 2 Corinthians 11, I'd like to remind us a little bit about Paul, the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul also learned about hope and faith in the midst of the trials of his life. And in 2 Corinthians 11, and we're just going to read here from verses 24-28, we just see a little bit. Paul describes just a little bit. He makes this list to help his brethren, to help us today, understand the many trials he had to endure. And he went through these trials because of his devoted service to God, to Christ, and to the church. It wasn't about him. In 2 Corinthians 11, verse 24, we pick up this list, and here he says, he speaks from the Jews five times. He says, I received 40 stripes, minus one. Very brutal beatings. Verse 25, he says, three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day, I have been in the deep. That's in the ocean. In journeys often, in perils of water. In other words, in dangers. In perils of water, in perils of robbers. Dangerous from our own countrymen, and from Gentiles, and from in the city, from being in the wilderness, from being in the sea, from being among false brethren. He knew a lot about trials, didn't he? Verse 27, in weariness, in toil, in sleeplessness, often in hunger, in thirst, in fasting, often in cold and nakedness.

And then he adds this, verse 28, is that enough to worry about? Is that enough trial? Then there's something else. As a leader in God's church, he also had this, besides the other things what comes upon me daily, my deep concern for all the churches. His burden was not, his trial was not just physically, it was also psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually his concern for the church and all his brethren. And if you turn in the next chapter, 2 Corinthians 12, verse 7 through 10, 2 Corinthians 12, 7 through 10, Paul also, we are reminded, also knew a lot about suffering from these ailments, these physical ailments that just don't seem to go away. Paul called his ailment a thorn in the flesh. You're probably maybe familiar with that. 2 Corinthians 12, verse 7, Paul says, "'lest I should be exalted above measure,' meaning become conceited, NIV translators become conceited. He says by the abundance of the revelations of everything he was teaching, you get a little proud about that, he said, "'A thorn in the flesh was given to me.' God allowed him to be afflicted with something, and people wonder what it is, maybe something with his eyes, we're not sure. In verse 8, concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times, that it might depart for me. And God said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore," Paul says, "'most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in my infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.'" Perhaps you read that part, that sentence many years ago, as I did for the first time. It seemed when I'm weak, I'm strong. You're going, what? That's not how it works. No, it works in the fact that when he's weak physically, and we can't take another step, just like we can't sometimes, and we're sick, or have something that's not healed yet, and we're just pushing through life. When we're weak, we can turn to God and ask for his help, and he does the strengthening. He gives us the help. And that's how when we are weak, we are strong. And so Paul persevered through all this darksome trial in his life, all these darksome trials. And you know, I quickly wonder, well, how did he do it? Inquiring minds want to know, how did he do it? Well, he did a number of things. For example, he believed and lived the faith that he preached. He wasn't somebody that preached one thing and did another. He lived the faith that he preached. Remember Philippians 4.13? You can jot it down. Philippians 4.13, he said, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Paul never stopped. He never stopped laying down his life for God in the church.

He stayed focused on his mission, on his purpose, his goal. And he also knew, and this is very important, he knew that his trials worked for the spiritual benefit of himself and others.

His trials worked for the spiritual benefit of himself and others. And so with conviction and faith in God and his word and with the help of God's Holy Spirit, Paul stayed ever faithful. In all his trials, he kept his eyes focused on the true light, Jesus Christ, God the Father, the hope of salvation, and all these things we should be doing too.

And so now, what about us? What about us? Our trials are just as real as Hannah's and David's and Paul's. And if, remember that little word again? And if we endure in faithfulness to God, then we too will see a brighter day, and especially that brighter day of salvation in the kingdom of God. In our darkest trials, we must hold fast to God's truth.

Now, there's many things we could pull out as being God's truth, and I'd like to share with you now, I'd like to share with you six truths. You might call them truths. There's always another word for things, maybe six assurances, however you want to put it. Six truths or assurances that we can take from Scripture that has meant that I would like to share with us today to encourage us and to inspire us in our trials, because I know we do have them. So let me share this number one. Here's a truth number one, or assurance number one. And it goes like this. Number one, God is with us. God is with us even in the darkness. Even in the darkness, God is with us. Let's look at Psalm 139, Psalm 139, verse 7. I'm going to turn some Scriptures of each one of these points as proof text to show where I'm not just making these things up. I would not dare. So let's look at what God says. Let's look at what the inspired word of God tells us. In Psalm 139, it happens to be a Psalm of King David. Psalm 139, verse 7. And David wrote this. He says, Where can I go from your spirit? He's talking to the Lord. Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? In verse 9, he goes on, If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. Verse 11, he says, If I say, Surely the darkness shall fall on me, while even the night shall be light about me. Indeed, the darkness shall not hide me from you, but the night shines as the day. He says, The darkness and the light are both alike to you. He's talking to God. And so now if you want to take this darkness as literal or figurative, it means the same. What it means is that there is no trial so dark, no trouble so hard, that God will not be with us. That's His assurance. Now repeat that. There is no trial so dark, no trouble so hard, that God will not be with us. Isn't that good to know? Isn't that good to remember? Number two. Number two. God will guide us through the darkness. God will guide us through the darkness. Let's turn to Psalm 18. God will guide us through the darkness. And let's read a little bit. Again, another psalm of David. Psalm 18. Psalm 18. And I'm going to begin in verse 4.

Psalm 18 verse 4. David speaking, he says, The pangs of death surrounded me, and the floods of ungodliness made me afraid. The sorrows of Sheol, the sorrows of the grave, surrounded me. The snares of death confronted me. Would you say he's in a dark spot?

Yeah. Verse 6. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he cried out, and cried out to my God.

He heard my voice from his temple, and my cry came before him, even to his ears.

Think about when we're crying out to God in our prayers. And what does God's part, what does God do? Look at verse 20. Continuing on, David says, The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands, he has recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from him. These verses remind us, again, if we submit to God, if we seek Him first, if we believe God and do what He says, He will hear us. He will be more quick to answer us, won't He? And then verse 27-28, David adds, For you will save the humble people, but will bring down the haughty looks. For you will light my lamp, the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. And so there is no ordeal so dark and grim that God will not guide us through, brethren. There is no ordeal so dark and grim that God will not guide us through. Very good assurance. Number three. Number three. God will strengthen and deliver us from our troubles. God will strengthen and deliver us from our troubles. Let's turn to Psalm 91. Psalm 91.

There's such great encouragement in Scripture and such great encouragement in many of the Psalms.

God will strengthen and deliver us from our troubles. Let's look at Psalm 91, and we'll look at verse 2. Verse 2 begins with the psalmist. The psalmist is actually making this statement. Here the psalmist is not identified. Here the psalmist declares, he states, I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in him I will trust. That's a very powerful statement.

And how does God respond? In this psalm we have something interesting. We actually have God's response. It's found in verse 14 through 16. And look at this powerful response to someone in a trial and looking to God for help. God responds, verse 14, because he has set his love upon me, therefore I will deliver him. And get ready for some more I Will statements from God. God says, I will set him on high because he has known my name. He shall call upon me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him. And with long life, I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.

There is no hardship so big that God will not help us and deliver us. There is no hardship so big that our God will not help us and deliver us. Number four, God will give us peace of mind. God will give us peace of mind. He will give us comfort and help in our distress. Psalm 112 verse 1 is where we're going to look at next. Psalm 112 verse 1. Again, these wonderful assurances from God's Word. God will give us peace of mind. Psalm 112 verse 1 now. And it reads, "'Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who delights greatly in his commandments.'" Again, this idea we have to be submitting ourselves to God. In verse 4, "'And to the upright there arises light in the darkness. And he, God, is gracious and full of compassion and righteousness.'" Continuing on, speaking about the righteous man who's following God, not only is God righteous and full of compassion, so becomes the righteous man. Verse 6, "'Surely he will never be shaken. The righteous will be a never-lasting remembrance. He will not be afraid of evil tidings. His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. And his heart is established. His mind is established. It's calm. It's peaceful. He will not be afraid.'" You see, there is no trouble so difficult that God will not give us peace of mind. No matter what terrible trial you may be going through right now, you can be assured that there's no trouble so difficult that God will not give you peace of mind.

In number 5 of these assurances, these truths we're looking at. Number 5, "'God may use trials to show us our sin and discipline us.' God may use trials to show us our sin and discipline us.'" Yeah, I know. This might not be the verses we like so much. We like to help us God verse, and this is also a help us God verse, but in a way, maybe we don't always appreciate as much. Let's turn for this proof text. Let's go to Hebrews 12. Let's go into the New Testament. Hebrews 12. And here we read some verses beginning around verse 7. They're quoting from Proverbs verse 5 through 6 about how God, "'Don't despise the chasing of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him, for whom the Lord loves he chases, and he scourges every son whom he receives.'" And that's from Proverbs 3, verse 11 through 12. But I want to pick up also what's added here in Hebrews 12, verse 7. And this is the writer of Hebrews. He says, "'If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chasten?'" Well, there are some fathers out there that never chasten their children. And of course chastening doesn't mean beatings. It means disciplining, which can be very different from that. But every child needs some guidelines. Every child needs some boundaries. And when we cross those boundaries, we need correction. And our Heavenly Father will do that with us because He loves us. He says, verse 9, continuing in verse 9, "'Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?' And also suggesting so should respect our Heavenly Father, and He corrects us. Verse 10, "'For they indeed, for they those our human fathers, indeed for a few days chastened us, has seen best to them. But He the Father, for our prophet, that we may be partakers of His holiness.'" You see? God chastens us at times with trials because He wants us to get right with Him. He wants us to get out of the ditches that are only going to cause us troubles and more sin and grief. Verse 11, "'Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful.' Yeah? "'But nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it, to those who have been disciplined by it, who allow themselves to be disciplined in their trials.' So, brethren, we learn then that there is no distress, and this is something to consider. There is no distress God will not use to help us repent and conquer our sins. Again, I'll repeat that. There is no distress God will not use to help us repent and conquer our sins. It's all for our benefit. Now, number six, the last truth I want to share with you today. Let's look at it. It is. Let me give it to you first. Number six, God will use our trials to make us more like Christ. God will use our trials to make us more like Christ. And here, if you turn forward a few pages, we come to James chapter 1. James 1 verse 2 through 4. James 1, 2 through 4.

This is that verse that we find kind of challenging at times to really get into. But it goes like this. It's so important. James writes, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. See, that's the hard part when we're in trials. This doesn't feel like joy to me. This feels like agony. The joy is what the benefit can be. Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. Well, let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete and lacking nothing. Trials can help us build some of that righteous character to be like God, to be like Christ that we so desperately need in our lives and to be ready for the kingdom. Let's also look in 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 6 through 7. 1 Peter 1, 6 through 7. Here the apostle Peter carries on a similar idea.

He says, Breaking into the thought, In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials. Why are we grieved in various trials? Why do we suffer in some trials? He tells us, verse 7. It's so that the genuineness or the authenticity of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, that it may be found to praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Some translations say, to praise, honor, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. In other words, we need to be ready for that seven trumpet call when Christ returns. We need to be ready for that resurrection. And so, we should be reminded then that there is no trial God will not use to make us like Christ, ready for salvation. And I'll repeat that. There is no trial God will not use to make us like Christ and ready for salvation. Our Father loves us that much. He's going to do this for us to help us. And so, what have we learned today? Today, we have learned that the darkness of our trials fades away. They fade away when we stay convicted of God's truth and continue in repentance and faith and love toward God and to our neighbor. We have also learned that it is darkest before the dawn, which means our trials will not last forever. We will experience dark times, but we should also remember this important line from 1 Peter 2.9. It reminds us that the Father has called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light. The Father is faithful to help us. In Jesus Christ, the life and the light dispels the darkness. And, brethren, if you will recall Revelation 22, verse 12, brethren, behold, He, Jesus Christ, is coming quickly.