Jesus the Light: An Escape from Sin and Judgment

Well, good morning. Thank you for your singing. I ask you to open up your Bibles to John chapter 8, please. The Gospel of John, chapter 8. It's been a few weeks since we've been in this study. And we kind of finished right in the middle of a section.

If you remember, we're in the Feast of Booths at this point in the Gospel of John. We're about six months or so before Jesus would die. And if you remember, he's using this Feast of Booths to tell the people what he provides those who believe upon him for life. And remember, we talked about how he said that he's living water. And the verses after that in chapter 7 was all about Jesus being living water.

And now we find ourselves in the middle of Jesus' teaching on being the light of the world. If you remember in verses 12 through 20, Jesus said that he's the light of the world. And then came discussion on what that meant. And we saw last time Jesus speaking on being the light of the world, in which we saw that there's two aspects of light, if you remember.

Two aspects of light. One is to know and to understand, and the other one is to live in that understanding. And the first part of these verses really centered on verses 12 through 20 about the understanding, the part of Jesus being the light of understanding and how the unbelievers do not understand, and Jesus does. In fact, the unbelievers cannot judge rightly because they do not understand, but Jesus does judge and understand because he knows the Father.

And now here we are, we're about to read it first and then go to the Lord in prayer. In verses 21 to 30, in which now there's something downstream from our understanding. There's something downstream from ignorance, and that is the way we live our life. And so that Jesus is light in the fact that not only does he provide us understanding, but he provides us a way to live righteously, is what he means by being the light to the world.

So let us read the text and go to the Lord in prayer. Chapter 8 verse 21 Jesus so he said to them again I am going away and you will seek me and you will die in your sin Where I am going you cannot come So the Jew said, will he kill himself since he says where I am going, you cannot come? He said to them, you are from below, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world.

I told you that you would die in your sins for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. So they said to him, Who are you? And Jesus said to them, Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him. They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father.

So Jesus said to them, When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and I do nothing of my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him. As he was saying these things, many believed in him. Oh God in heaven, we thank you for Christ Jesus the Lord.

We're thankful that he was faithful to come and proclaim the truth, even amongst people who hated him and hated you. We're thankful, Lord, that we can hear and see this truth now, and we can turn from our darkness and go to light. We can turn from our ignorance and go to understanding. We can turn from our sins and go to righteousness so that one day we will not face judgment like the unbeliever, but instead we will face and have life and light with the Father.

I pray, Lord, that it would be our, everyone in this room, it would be our destination to have Christ in the end, so that where he is, we can go. Lord, so help us to hear and listen now. Help us to see what Jesus has said and help us to believe and let it be for our light and life. We thank you for these things. In Jesus' name, amen. So Ephesians tells us, Ephesians 4, 17 through 19, tells us, Now this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds.

They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them. Due to their hardness of heart, they become callous and give themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. A truth of scripture a truth of the Christian religion is that when our minds are darkened and not understanding then so will be our practice And so this is where we move to now in this section of scripture Jesus has taught that he has understanding, the light of understanding that he can provide to the world.

And now he focuses on the Pharisees and the religious leaders and says that you not only are ignorant and you're misunderstanding, But also you are in your sins and therefore you will face the darkness of God's wrath and not be where I am. And so this is where Jesus turns to here. And so we're going to see the same kind of theme play out in the moving forward in these verses.

That Jesus goes to the light where they cannot go in their unbelief and in their darkness. And they will be in wrath and darkness because they cannot be where he is. Jesus is the light and not only that he provides understanding, but a forgiveness of sins which provides life with him where he's going. So let us see this play out and apply it to our own lives.

We see he says in John chapter 8, 21, Jesus says, So he said to them again, I'm going away and you will seek me and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you can not come. You see Jesus talks about, we see here where he's going versus where the unbeliever is going. And he tells the religious unbeliever, he says to them, I'm going away and you will seek me.

You see where Jesus is going. When he says, when Jesus says, I'm going away, this is him saying, I'm going to die. Jesus says, I'm going to die. I'm going to go away. And he says this often in John. If you remember in John chapter 7, verse 33, he said the same thing.

He said to him in verse 33, I will be with you a little longer and then I'm going to him who sent me. See, this is Jesus saying, I'm going to die and go back to be with the father. And you see where the reason why we die, the reason why death occurs is because of sin. It's because of the practice of darkness. And we go to, we do not go to light. We go instead to wrath.

And so Jesus here, he's saying, I'm going to be with the father, but we must understand it's not because of sin. It's not because he has sinned and that's why he's dying to go to the father or that's why he's dying. That's why he faces death. But instead of it being because of darkness why Jesus goes to the Father, we know that Jesus does all things well.

Remember what he going to say later on in verse 29 is he says And he who sent me if you look at chapter 8 verse 29 he says and he who sent me is with me He has not left me alone for I always do the things that are pleasing to him You see, Jesus goes to and is going to die and go away, as he says in verse 21, because he does all things pleasing to the Father. He pleases the Father in all that he does. And that's why Jesus was going away.

So although he goes away because he pleases the Father, we see a contrast with where the religious leaders or the unbelievers are going to. What will happen when they go away, when they die? Look what he says in verse 21. Here's the contrast with where the unbeliever will go. He says, and you will seek me and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.

You see the contrast there. Jesus goes away. He will go away because he pleases the Father. And so therefore, he lives righteously. He's of light. He goes to the light.

And the contrast is the unbelievers, they go away because they are going to die in their sins because they are of the darkness. You see, the opposite of light is dark and the opposite of sin is to do what's pleasing to the Father. And so he's saying that you will go away because you are in your sin. He says you will die in your sin in verse 21. They will die in darkness as opposed to him being light.

He says, and it's fascinating here, so he's setting up that contrast with light and darkness. And it's fascinating with that, he says that you will seek me. He says, if you notice in verse 21, he says you will seek me. In what ways will the religious leaders seek Jesus? In what ways will the unbelieving Jews seek Jesus whenever they are facing death or wrath, when they're facing the doom of their darkness or of them dying in their sin?

And I don't think Jesus here is teaching that these religious leaders before him are going to just massively come to Christ, that whenever they are facing wrath, they're going to just come to Christ and believe. Thank you for joining us. The consequences of your darkness. The religious leaders in 70 AD, we see that they received the just consequences of being in their sin and denying Jesus.

We see that whenever 70 AD came along, the religious leaders were completely judged by God. They were judged by God for their rejection of Messiah. And in that moment, whenever they saw the Roman armies coming to destroy the temple and Jerusalem, in that moment, they sought help from Messiah. In fact, they went back to the temple to try to find help to seek Messiah so that it would be helped so that they would not receive judgment from God.

And the fact is, is that when they went to the temple, they were utterly destroyed and they received the wrath of God. He says you will die in your sins and there's a certain aspect where they sought help from the Messiah and the help from the Messiah did not come and said they received the penalty of their darkness, they received the penalty of their sin. There's another aspect too of the idea of seeking Jesus, so to speak, or Messiah upon their death and their sins.

And that is when people, and this relates to everyone in this room, whenever we are caught in our sins, whenever we die in our sins and we face the God of light looking down and he judges us, we are going to want to seek help in that moment. In that moment, we're going to want to seek some kind of help to overcome the wrath that is going to fall upon us. We see Jesus talk about this whenever he says in Matthew 7, 21 through 23, when he says, Not everyone says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, and do mighty works in your name? And then I was declared to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. We see there that there is a seeking for Messiah from the people who knew about Messiah in that day in which they're dying in their sin and there's no help coming.

He says, depart from me instead. There's when those who have died in their darkness, they will seek for some kind of help away from the wrath of God, but no help will come. You see he says where I am going you cannot come You see where Jesus dies doing what pleasing to the Father and goes to the Father of Light these unbelievers these people who hate Jesus they will die in their sins and they will seek help from the wrath of God but they cannot go where Jesus is with the Father.

This seems kind of maybe contradictory. You remember in John chapter 8, verse 12, Jesus said to them, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness. But here he's saying you will seek me and you cannot come where I'm going. But the point is, in John chapter 8 verse 12, he's beckoning people to come to him now to have their darkness dealt with now.

And in this case, where we are in John 8, 21, these are the people who have died in that darkness. They rejected Jesus, but now facing their judgment, they're trying to find some way out of that judgment. And Jesus says, you will not find your way out. You cannot come where I am going. The difference being is that people who want their darkness dealt with now, Jesus provides the way.

He says, I am the light of the world. I will provide that light for you. I'll provide forgiveness of sins for you. But people who want a way out of their consequences of sin and darkness, because wrath has come, Jesus says, you cannot come where I am going. It will be closed off to you. And so the point is that when people die in their darkness, when the unbelievers here die in their darkness, and they want a way out of their consequences of sin, there'll be none to be had.

They'll be cut off. It's kind of like a person who is falling off a cliff, and whenever they fall off a cliff to their death, what will naturally happen is they'll wave around their arms trying to grab for any kind of support or help. To stop them from falling. And this is like the person who dies in their sin. They will try to grab hold of anything to stop the wrath of God from coming upon them, even in vanity.

And even if they know Messiah will cry out, Oh Messiah, help me. And Messiah will not be there to help. He will not be there to help those who are receiving the consequences of their darkness. So where Jesus is going as light to the Father because he always pleases him, He goes to dwell in perfect light with the Father. But the unbelieving Jews would go to the darkness of eternal wrath even as they vainly seek a way out Even as they vainly seek a way out because the wrath of God has fallen upon them Now as fallen creatures we try to act like we are not as dark as we are in understanding and practice We try to act like we're not as ignorant as we are or we don't practice sin as we actually do.

And we see the Pharisees had a lot of pride in their understanding of Scripture and their ability to judge and in how they lived. And when you ask people about their lives today, they will say they aren't perfect, but they aren't that bad either. But when we die, we come face to face with the God of piercing light, and all those ways to hide their darkness will prove to be a house of sand.

They will prove to not be able to hold the weight of God's judgment on them, and they will find no way of escape. That day when you are naked and full of shame before God and want to then seek for help from Jesus, he will say, depart from me, your end will be eternal darkness instead. And this is the end for those who are of darkness, when they die in their darkness, where Jesus went, where Jesus goes, they cannot come.

So this is where we're at with Jesus with the religious leaders. Saying again, not only are you darkened in your understanding and you're darkened in your sin and where you are going is not to be with the father of light, but instead you will go to wrath. And we see in verse 22, moving on from that, we see this darkness of the religious leaders kind of play out.

We see it play out in ignorance as darkness is ignorance, and we see it play out in utter acting in sin. And look at what he says in 822. So the Jew said, will he kill himself since he says where I'm going? You cannot come. You see, here's like a mixture of ignorance. They really don't know what Jesus means when he says I'm going to be with the Father.

They have no idea. But mixed in with that ignorance is actually a sinful action of scorn, of kind of making fun of what Jesus is saying. Not only is ignorance on display here, but also scorn and a sinful behavior against Jesus. As you see, their darkness, the darkness of the Jews are on display here as they, in their ignorance, they speak folly against Jesus.

This is similar to what they said in John chapter 7, verses 33 through 35. If you go back there John 7 33 through 35 when Jesus said he going back to be with the Father they said something similar Jesus said I will be with you a little longer and then I going to him who set me You will seek me and you will not find me Where I am you cannot come And so here's the same kind of mixture of darkness, of ignorance, and just sinful behavior against Jesus. The Jews said to one another, where does this man intend to go that we will not find him?

Does he intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What they're saying is, you know, they again don't understand that he's going to the Father. They say that he must be going to teach the Greeks. This is them just kind of messing with Jesus or joking around, sneering at Jesus. But what's fascinating about both of these responses to what Jesus says about him going to be with the Father is both of these sneerings, although they're in ignorance and they're just in folly, both of them actually have a hint of truth in them.

If you remember, we talked about in verses 33 through 35, we talked about the fact that Jesus would actually go to the Greeks. He would go to the dispersion after he died. He would actually do that, even though they aren't meaning that as they say this. And in this case here, where we're at in our text presently, whenever they say, is he going to kill himself?

There's actually an aspect where Jesus would give up himself or he would, you know, I hate to say kill himself, but he would give up himself as they're saying, will he kill himself? There's a way in which he will. And so there's a truth value to this. We see these things come together in John chapter 10 verses 16 through 18. He says that I have other sheep that are not of this fold.

I must bring them also and they will listen to my voice. So there's Jesus saying I will bring others to me through the church. And he says so there will be one flock and one shepherd. And he goes on to say for this reason the Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me but I lay down of my own accord.

I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father. So there Jesus is saying there is a certain sense where I'll give up myself, or not quite kill myself, but I will give up myself for the sake of others, because the Father has given me this charge, because he does all things pleasing to him.

So although this is a display of these people's darkness and ignorance and folly against Jesus, there's an aspect of truth to this. Jesus would give himself up at his departure. And so we're going to see that play out. Jesus is going to focus more on the death of Christ. He's going to focus more on giving himself up, because it's by him giving himself up that he'll bring people out of darkness into light.

It'll bring them out of the ignorance of darkness into light. Light, out of the display of sin, and it's a way in his death he'll bring them unto light. But first, Jesus not only says that where they're going is darkness, but he says where they come from is darkness as well. Look what he says in verse 23. He said to them, you are from below, I am from above.

You are of this world, and I am not of this world. See what he's saying there is not only are you going to go to wrath, I'm going to go to the Father, being everything pleasing him, being of light, going to the Father of light. I'm going to the Father, he says, and you're going to die in your sins and go to hell, go to darkness. But he says, you're also from darkness as well.

Not only do you go to darkness, but you are from darkness as well. Look at how he says, you are from below. He says, you're from this world in 23. And Jesus says, I'm from above. I'm not of this world. You see, what he's saying there is that the unbelief, the religious leaders, is not like as if they have done bad things and so now they're dark.

What he's saying is that you are actually born in the world of darkness and you are a product of that world of darkness. So not only are you going to darkness, but you're actually born in a world of darkness from below, from this world. Ephesians 2, 1-3, we read it often. Paul says, Love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with his desires. Whoever does the will of God abides forever. So we see that the world is of darkness. It produces darkness. And we are all creatures of the world.

So again it not as if we are all neutral as we start off and we may become sinners or we may live in our ignorance The fact is is we all start off in that dark in that with that dark nature within us Where the problem begins for the unbelieving Jews before Jesus is not that they're dark in an understanding and darkness of practice of truth, but the place of the origin of their issue is that they're born in a world of darkness. So they are darkness itself. And this is the same for everyone born after Adam.

We all have our origins in the world of darkness so that there is not one who can say that they do not have this problem of darkness. I think one of the people who try to avoid the consequences and avoid wrath is they try to say they're not all that bad. And what Jesus here is saying is that you have your origins in the world itself, in darkness itself.

But fascinating enough, Jesus doesn't have that problem. He's not born in the world of darkness. He doesn't have that origin. He is actually from above. He says he's not from below, but he's from above. Jesus is truly God come down from the Virgin Mary, and so he doesn't have that darkness problem.

As he's saying, not only is he going to go to the Father, because he pleases the Father and does what is light, but he actually has his origination in light itself. And so Jesus is condemning these people as saying that they and their unbelief is filled with darkness and they will not follow where he's at, a being of light. What we see here, though, and it kind of changes moving forward from this point on, is that not only, it's not like Jesus came to be light and he says, ha ha, you sinners, and that's it.

And we've talked about this before. It's not like Jesus came in contrast and was perfect light, is going to light, so everyone can look at him and say, I wish I could do that. Jesus came to be light and he actually offers us light as well as we saw in chapter 8 verse 12. He is the light of the world, he provides that light. And so the point here is not to say that we're all of darkness, we start in darkness and we go to darkness and we're sinners and that's all we have.

But the point of Jesus is that yes, you're dark, but I came to give you light. The point is not to simply say that I'm light and you're darkness and that's all there is to it. The point is that you're dark, I'm light, and I came to give you light. And this is where it moves forward from here. He says you are of the world your origins are of the world you are from below but he then shifts to say how he provides light to the darkness He says in verse 24, I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.

So you see how it goes from simply saying you're dark and you're going to darkness, but now he says there's like this beautiful ray of hope, even as it comes in a form of a warning. He says, for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. What a beautiful truth it is that there is a way out of our darkness. And Jesus is talking to his enemies here, those who hate him, those who in their ignorance and sinful behavior, they're speaking against him.

And he tells them that you are going to darkness, but there's a way out. If you believe I am he, then you will escape the sin, your sin. Very fascinating. He says, unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. Unless you believe, the he there is not really in the Greek. He simply says, unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.

Jesus is saying, this is your end, unless you believe that I am. Now, what is the I am? Remember, we talked about this before. When Jesus says you need to believe that I am, he's referring to all the I am's of John. But more specifically, if you remember in chapter 8 verse 12, again, where all these hinge off of, Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world.

Remember, that is a great I am statement. I am the light. And he's saying, unless if you believe that I am this light, you will die in your sins and face judgment and darkness. So here we see a beautiful reality that there's a way out of our darkness, a way out of our sin, if we believe that Jesus truly is the I Am. He says, I am the light of the world.

You remember in other parts of John we'll see he says, I'm the bread of life, I'm the door of the sheep, I'm the good shepherd, I'm the resurrection of life, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. I am the true vine. So Jesus here is offering, there is a way out of your darkness if you believe that I am. That I am these things. Instead of ignorance fighting me and sinning against me, if you would believe that I am truly him, you will find your way out.

You will actually receive light of life But then we see again with this declaration from Jesus in verse 25 we see them act out in their darkness again both ignorance and sinning against the Lord of life sinning against them in their darkness They said to him, who are you? That's what they're, again, ignorant. And we shouldn't look at them as them saying, oh, just tell us, who are you?

This is them saying, who do you think you are? Who do you think you are to say that we need to believe that you are? In order to have light and to escape our sin. So they're saying in their ignorance and their sin against God, who are you? And Jesus said to them, just what I have been telling you from the beginning. I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true.

And I declare to the world what I have heard from him. So there Jesus is saying, I've been telling you this from the beginning. I know all things. I've been teaching you the truth from the beginning. I've been teaching you light from the beginning. And he says, you simply, though, do not believe because they're in darkness.

You see, Jesus has been teaching them from the beginning. It's not a matter of they just didn't have the information and they really need to know it. He's been teaching them, but in their darkness, they do not receive it. They remain ignorant and they remain in their sin. Jesus says, I've been telling you from the beginning, but you do not listen. In fact, that ignorance and not understanding furthers in verse 27, they did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father.

So there is just a continual darkness in their mind revealed in their practice, and they are stuck in their willful, sinful ignorance. And that just keeps on going on and on with the religious leaders. And here we see in verse 28 is that the only way this dark cycle can be broken is if they do one thing and one thing only. And this is what he says in verse 28.

So Jesus said to them, When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he. And I do nothing of my own authority, but speak just as the Father has taught me. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him. He says there's only one thing you can do for your darkness, for your ignorance, for your sinful behavior to be forgiven and have life.

That is if you believe upon what I do on the cross. Now when Jesus says that you will, again verse 28, when you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he. He's not, again, He's not saying that all the religious leaders, when they put him up on the cross, they'll all believe who he is as truly light, as truly the one who has come to give light to the world.

But what he's saying is that for those who do believe, the only way they're going to is by looking at that one beautiful and awesome act of Jesus. So he's not saying all you guys are going to believe when you put me up on the cross. But what he is saying is that the only way that your darkness is going to be overcome, your ignorance and your practice of sin, is when you look upon what I do on the cross.

Then you can believe. And the point being said here is that the only way that our ignorance can be overcome, the darkness of ignorance and our practice of sin, and that darkness to be overcome is to look to the cross, the forgiveness of sins, where darkness was placed on Jesus and light exploded from the cross. It can be very easy for us in our darkness to think that, well, if I'm darkened in my ignorance, all I've got to do is learn more and know more.

Whether it's secular knowledge, if I just know more, I'll be better. Or religious knowledge, if I just know more scripture, then I'll have light and it'll be good. But Jesus doesn't say you need to know more facts about scripture, know more facts about this. He says you need to look to the cross in order to have your darkness dispelled. And it can be very simple for us on the other aspect of darkness.

So that is our living in sin. It can be very easy for us to say, well, I'm darkened in my sin and my practice of sin. Therefore, I just need to do better, have more morality. And what Jesus says that the only way it's going to be dispelled is if you look to the cross of Jesus Christ. If you look to what I do on the cross, when you hang me up, that is the only way that darkness will be dispelled.

Again, they did not understand. They're continuing in their foolish ignorance. And so Jesus says, so when you lifted me up, when you lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am. So the only way for our darkness to be dispelled the only way for our ignorance for our practice of sin for the areas of darkness to be dispelled is when we look to Jesus on the cross and then we can be forgiven of our sins and we can be light as what he says in verse 12 We can have the light of life.

And this is the reality now before us. The same with the religious leaders before them, the unbelieving Jews who saw Jesus and they hated him as he declared that he is the one who come to bring light and life. He is the one that died on the cross and went back to be with the Father, enjoying perfect unity with the Father and perfect light. And the only way that we can then go where he is going is when we look upon the cross and receive the forgiveness of sins and our darkness is dealt with.

That is the only way that we can go to where the Father is at. That's the only way that our darkness can be dealt with. In Colossians 1, 21 through 23, Paul says, And you who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds. So notice again, the mind and the deeds coming together in darkness. You are hostile in mind and you are doing evil deeds.

Both aspects of darkness displayed. He is now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which had been proclaimed in all creation under heaven And of which I, Paul, became a minister.

So when we believe that Jesus truly dealt with our sin and darkness upon the cross, and we put our trust and faith that that is how we are forgiven and cleansed, and then we live a life of faith and following Jesus to continue to deal with our darkness and sin, that is the only way our ignorance and our practice of sin can be dealt with Are you looking to Jesus today Are you believing upon him today Even as a believer as a Christian as you deal with the different manifestations of darkness in you now are you looking to the cross to deal with the darkness? Are you looking to what Jesus has done? As an unbeliever, are you scoffing at the work of Christ?

Do you think that there is not that much darkness in you? There's not that much ignorance in you. There's not that much practice of sin in you. There's not that much darkness in you. Are you relying upon that? There is a day that will come when you will die and face the God of light.

And that light will pierce through your darkness. And you will be left naked and exposed with no hope or anything around. And if you know a little bit of Messiah because you've been in church long enough, you might cry out, oh, save me, help me from this. But Jesus will say to you that you are not welcome in his kingdom and to depart from him. There is a need for you to deal with your sin and your darkness now as you come to Christ because you hate the darkness.

And you go to him and he says, if you follow me, I'll give you the light of life. But if you instead do not do that and upon your death you try to find an escape from darkness, not because you don't like the darkness, but because you don't like the consequences, Jesus is saying, you cannot follow me here. There is a need for your darkness to be dealt with today, right now.

Go to Christ. He has done the work. And the only way you can do that is not by more morality, not by knowing more, but rather look into Jesus and what he did on the cross, where he did away with darkness by forgiveness of sins. So again, chapter 8, verse 12, Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life Follow Christ now have the life have the light so that when you die he will say welcome and you will be with the Father forever in light as well Let us pray Oh Father thank you for Jesus We thank you for Christ.

We thank you, Lord, that you have done away with darkness, that there is a way for us to no longer live in our darkness. Lord, it's so easy for us to follow the deception of Satan, to be ignorant as we follow Satan. But I'm thankful, God, that in Jesus Christ we can be forgiven of such sins. We can be forgiven of our ignorance and we can actually have righteous life and living.

Lord, we know that that's only possible as we go to Christ now to deal with our darkness instead of waiting. God, that it should be something of awe and fear that one day we will all face you. And if we have not dealt with that darkness, we will look for a way out of such judgment, but there will be no way out. There will be no hope. But Lord, praise be to God that Christ has died on the cross now, so we can believe upon this and be saved.

Would you help us to believe upon Jesus together? Would you help those who are not believers before me? Will you help them to see that they are in a state that is not good, that will lead to great wrath? And when you cause them to go to Christ to be healed, and when you help the believers before me to celebrate Christ, celebrate what he's done on the cross, that our darkness can be dealt with, even as the manifestation of darkness can happen in our lives today, would you show them afresh to go to Christ to have that dealt with, so that when we do die, whenever we do move on, our lives won't be marked by dying in our sin.

We thank you for this gospel. We thank you for Christ. May he be praised by us. In Jesus' name, amen.