The man of sorrow sees it coming toward Him. He already senses something of the perfidy, the hypocrisy, the calumny, the mockery, the pain, and the shame which like an avalanche threatens to overwhelm Him. Yet, He does not retreat or even stand still. With unflinching determination, He walks right into it, for He knows that this is necessary in order that His people may be saved. “Having loved His own…He loved them to the uttermost” (John 13:1).
William Hendriksen

The Midnight Hour

The Midnight Hour

THE MIDNIGHT HOUR

An incident happened while I was stationed on a U. S. air base in England which would be very hard to forget. It was about midnight and being in the crash and rescue department we were standing by in a truck on the runway. A jet plane came up to the runway to warm up its engines. There seemed to be some trouble because after warming up the engines the pilot took the plane off the runway and waited a while, then proceeded to make its way again on the runway. The pilot continued as at first to run up the engines, not noticing that the fuel was leaking very fast between the hot engines. They started to take off down the runway and as they were just starting to leave it, an engine burst into flames. They went on into the air only to crash about four miles away on the corner of a British airfield as they tried to make a landing. The plane exploded in the tree tops completely blowing both the men and the plane to bits.

The point I would like to put across is that it was near midnight and once the decision was made by the pilot to take off down the runway, there was no way of escape and they soon all died. The decision could have been made to take the aircraft back for repairs if the fault had been found in time. But as it was, the fault was not discovered until it was too LATE.

The Bible too speaks of the midnight hour in a very comparable sense – Midnight is the turning point when one day is ended and another begins. Midnight is often compared to the time when this life is ended and eternity begins. That brings us to a very important question. How is it with you as to this question of eternity? The Bible says, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23) and also “It is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27). How about you? Are you prepared to face your Creator when you stand before Him in judgment. It is truly midnight in your life even if you are young. You have no certainty that you will even be living on this earth tomorrow. It is midnight for you.

The Bible records an incident that happened at midnight in the book of Acts, chap. 16:25-31, “At midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do 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.”

It was the midnight hour for the jailor because had he gone through with his decision to kill himself he would have been ushered into eternity without Christ, without God, and without hope. But at that moment Paul called to him and he came and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? and the answer was given, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. So he was spared from an eternity of misery and woe at midnight.

May I ask you, dear reader, what is the state of your soul. Have you heard that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16); also “the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15) of whom the apostle Paul could say, “I am chief.”

Dear reader, have you ever considered the question of what lies beyond the grave? “As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Heb. 9:27, 28). Have you found Him as your Savior? He bore our sins when He hung on Calvary, and now He is offering full pardon if you accept Him as your Savior.

The Bible speaks also of a midnight that is upon this world, as it speaks of the time that Christ will come for His own people (1 Thess. 4:16).

The book of Revelation reveals the judgment that will come upon those who have not received Him and will be left behind when He comes for His own.

The men who were killed in the fatal aircraft had no choice once the plane left the runway and was in the air, nor will you dear reader if the grave finds you unprepared, nor will there be any chance for you, at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for His own, if you have heard of God’s love and rejected it, or put it off. Tomorrow may be too LATE.

“Behold NOW is the accepted time, Behold NOW is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2).

C. D.

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