In this sermon, the preacher reflects on the book of John and focuses on the theme of light and darkness. He emphasizes that darkness is afraid of light and that the only thing that can overcome darkness is light. The preacher shares a personal childhood memory of visiting his great-grandparents and highlights the importance of repentance and allowing the light of Christ to expose and drive away darkness in our lives. He also references the resurrection of Jesus and how it overcame sin, death, and hell, shining the eternal light and glory into the hearts of believers. The sermon concludes with a reminder of the specific assignment given to believers to open the eyes of others, turn them from darkness to light, and preach the light of Christ.

Let's commit this time to the Lord in prayer. Father in heaven, we stand before you, our hearts tuned and turned towards you in worship, in praise, in adoration, with thanksgiving. Thank you, Lord, for your word, how beautiful, how precious, how lovely is your word and how true. When it seems like so many of the things we read in here today are not true, yet we know your word is truth. Your truth will stand forever, it changes not. We rest in it, Lord, and we believe in your word and believe in your truth, believe in your Son, Jesus Christ. We thank you, Heavenly Father, for the word of life as we open the word of life here this morning and look into it. May you speak and give life. Lord, I pray that you will open our eyes if there be any areas of darkness that you would show forth your light. We love you, Lord, give you all glory and all praise, have your way in this service in Jesus Christ's name, amen. You may be seated. I've been pondering in the book of John for a long time, especially some of the first several verses. The first verse in him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shined into the darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not. Darkness is afraid of one thing. And there's only one thing that darkness can't handle that overcomes darkness, and that is light. May the light of Christ shine in this place today, exposing darkness, driving away all darkness. I remember, I was probably five years old. We went to visit my great-grandparents on my mother's side, Dottie Kings. I still remember where they lived. I still remember what the barn looked like. I remember walking into the house. There we visited my aged great-grandparents. We were told to be respectful, speak kindly, and behave ourselves, and so forth. Great-grandpa King, he could do water-witching, and we wanted to watch him do this. And so he took that pliers in his hand, and he walked across that living room floor like this, and in an instant, that thing was slammed to the ground, to the floor. It didn't fall. It was like it was slammed out of his hands to the floor with force. We were asking questions about how he does these things, and so forth, and there's some details there I won't go into, but we wanted to try it. And so we took that pliers, and we walked around the kitchen floor, especially over that place where he had walked, but nothing happened. Looking back now, it would seem, and I believe it's true, that darkness came down and hovered over my soul. I remember at 15 years old, our neighbors had lots of English friends who would come to their place and spend the weekend, and so forth, and they would give them lots of games. We would end up being there and playing with some of those games, and they had this odd thing called the Ouija board, and you're supposed to ask it questions, and all these things happen. And at the age of 15, we played with that Ouija board, and it seemed like more darkness settled down over my soul. I was not aware of that. I didn't realize it. At the age of 27, I fell under conviction of sin, and I confessed through several sessions of repentance with Brother Denny's, Brother Moe's, Brother Wayne Weber. Confessed all the sins that I knew. I had nothing, there was nothing I was hiding that I knew of. I was such a wretched man, and confessing the worst of sins, but I did not see myself as a sinner. And unless you see yourself as a lost man, you cannot be saved. And I could not be saved that way. Finally, after much prayer and travail, Wayne Weber claims the Holy Ghost showed him that I'm in witchcraft. I remember in that little room back there in that church basement, crying out to God, it was past midnight, and I was determined to not go home until I find what this is all about, until I find this truth. He said, you're involved in witchcraft. The Lord showed me you're involved in witchcraft, and I said, me, no, not I, I'm not involved in witchcraft. Yes, yes, he said, this is what the Lord showed me. He began to name these different things, water witching, kinesiology, the Ouija board, and my mind began to go back. And when I opened my mouth and confessed those things as sin, the darkness was broken, and the light of Christ shone into my heart and life. And I saw for the first time that I was a lost man in need of a Savior. And I was instantly saved and changed and transformed. That light shined in darkness. The darkness cannot comprehend it. The darkness cannot handle it. The darkness cannot figure it out. Jesus, the light of the world, by darkness slain, think about that, took upon himself death, overcoming sin, death, and hell. When God raised him from the dead, now to rule and reign in the hearts of the humble, the righteous, the holy, to make us clean by the blood of his own blood, he took upon himself our sins, overcame the powers of darkness by his resurrection from the dead, now shining that eternal light and glory into the hearts of men and women to give us the knowledge of the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul's assignment reads like this, to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they might receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. A specific assignment to open their eyes and to preach the light of Christ, to turn the people from darkness to light. He took that assignment to the ends of the earth in a sense. One of the specifics of John the Baptist's prophetic assignment was, as we read today in Luke chapter 1, that he would to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. John's assignment was to give light to them that sit in darkness. When Simeon in the temple, when he took the baby Jesus in his arms, he spoke prophetically over him. And one of the things that he said was, mine eyes have seen the salvation, thy salvation which thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles in the glory of thy people Israel. What might it be like to live in darkness? I asked our sister here this morning what it's like to be blind. Carol, I asked her, what's it like to be blind? She said she lives in the realm of sound. I thought of Fannie Crosby and it seems from the songs that she wrote that though her eyes were blind, physical eyes, yet she saw a realm of light that most of us don't pay as much attention to as she did. Our physical eyesight enables us to see around us. Her physical blindness by the grace of God enabled her to see the light of Christ around her. That was her focus. Have you ever been in a place where it was absolutely completely dark? Like a cave or something like that. There is no light there. In Egypt, one of the plagues was darkness and that darkness was so thick, it could be felt, could reach out and feel that darkness. I don't know what that's like. This is the condemnation that light is coming to the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. Jesus said, I am the light of the world. He that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. I am come a light into the world that whosoever believeth in me should not live in darkness. One of the things that kind of caused me to bring this message is I've been pondering this thing a lot. One of the questions was as we were working there in Greece on those islands there right next to the shore of Turkey, I've pondered what is it that is so significantly visible here that the light of Christ is shining in this place and the hearts of the Gentile people, the hearts of the Muslim peoples is open to receive the light in this very specific place. When I talk with some of the missionaries like Dan King and so forth in other countries in the Middle East, they talk of the people who want to actually receive Christ and they want to hear the gospel, but they are afraid to commit their lives to the gospel. They're afraid to follow Jesus because it might cost them their lives. And I know that's true in the Middle Eastern countries. I was reading a book just this week about the dreams and visions of the, and how Jesus shows up in many, many dreams and visions to the people, the Muslim peoples over and over again. And I know that this is happening there in Greece, in Lesbos Island. Many are the testimonies of the Muslims who say Jesus came to them in a dream and a vision. I could tell you many stories of people I know personally and it happened there. I'm wondering what is it about that there's an openness there that it seems like there's a place where the darkness has to go back and the light of Christ is able to shine. As I thought about that, I was listening to Dan Hofer as he shared a couple of weeks ago and something he said clicked. He mentioned the verse in Isaiah 25, I don't know if he mentioned that verse here, but we talked about it afterward. Now, I have been in Isaiah 60 a lot and verse 2 says that there is darkness for darkness covers the land and a thick darkness, the people. As we begin to study scriptures more intently and we allow the Spirit of God to bring, to illuminate it to us, we begin to see things differently and deeper maybe. So now I understand, my first glance at that verse was that there's a lot of darkness out there over lots of people. Now I'm beginning to understand that there is a specific darkness that is over the land and there is a darkness that is over the people, a thick darkness. Speaking of two different darknesses, and I don't understand all those things, but there's a verse in Isaiah 25 where the Lord says, on this mountain, I will take away the face of the covering over the nations, is that what it says? And take away the veil that is over the people, identifying two specific darknesses that he is going to take that veil away and, there was a dream, I think Dan Hofer was talking about this, and he said in their dream they saw this veil of darkness over the people, over the land that they're in there, and that veil of darkness was getting thin in some places and there was little bits of light shining through it. And around the edges of that veil there was people there and they were pulling out the threads like you pull them out of a knitted sweater. They were pulling down those threads around the edge of that darkness and the veil was getting thinner and thinner. And when I came to these verses in Isaiah 25, I'll turn there, verse 7, I was so thrilled. God is so amazing. He has so much hidden in His Word that beautiful things come out of it. And as we walk in the Spirit, He wants to interpret His Word to us. He will destroy and dismount and the face of the covering cast over all people and the veil that is spread over all nations. And so there's specific covering that is cast over the people and there's a specific veil that is spread over the nations. And He's going to do something with it and look at the context. The context is in the next verse says that He will swallow up death in victory. Now when did Jesus, when did the Lord swallow death? At the cross? The resurrection. Death lost its power. He swallowed up death in victory there at the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. That has already happened. Now when will He remove the face of this covering from off the people? When will He destroy it? When will He take away the veil that is spread over the nations? And do we have anything to do with it? How is the truth? How does the gospel? How does the news, the good news of the resurrection go to a new place? How does the good news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ go into a land that is spread over with darkness? When does that happen? It happens when someone goes there. It happens when someone upon whom the glory of the Lord has risen and he goes into a dark place and that glory of the Lord continues to shine and light is brought into that place. When you go to Ephesians chapter 6, it speaks of the principalities and powers, rulers of darkness. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities. What are principalities? Against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. We get small glimpses of some of these things throughout Scripture. Paul does not give us a whole lot of explanation of these things, but these truths are here and we need the Holy Spirit to reveal to us, to speak to us the Word of God into our present situation. Listen, when I came to these verses in Isaiah chapter 25, I understood something. I believe that there are principalities and what is a principality? Do we have principalities local here? Is Ephra a principality? Right? Don't we use that word? Municipality. Oh, okay. Good. That's a municipality. What is a municipality? I don't know what that means. Local. Okay. A defined area. What is a principality? A prince over an area. That's what I would understand it to be. I would understand that there are princes that rule and reign. Look at the book of Daniel where the prince of Persia was working. Daniel had 21 days of fasting and the prince of Persia, I think it was, had stopped the response. So it does seem like there's a prince of Persia. We're working with a lot of Persians these days. There's a lot of Afghanistan people coming. So there seems to be princes over them as well. And if you go to Afghanistan and preach the gospel there, you'll probably lay down your life and that would be okay. But God in His ordained timing is bringing the Afghani people out of their country into a place where they can hear the gospel by the tens of thousands. And they are hearing the gospel. They are seeing the light of Christ. I don't know what the principality, I don't know what that veil of darkness looks like that is over the Middle East. But there certainly is a veil of darkness over the land and there's one over the people. As they leave that Middle Eastern Turkey shore, they leave the area of that principality. That's how I would understand it. And they then enter into another area which is Europe. There's probably a prince over that area as well. It occurs to me, seems to me that right in the middle of those places, there's a lot of light coming through. The veil that is over here over the Middle East, it doesn't connect very well with the one from Europe. And so there's some space in between there that is right where those islands are and there's a lot of light shining out of those islands and many aren't seeing it and coming to that light. I get excited about those things. But on a more practical level, are there still areas in my life of darkness? Are there things that can be done today to bring light to the darkness in my life, my people, my country, my family? Are there things? So, how would we bring more light to our lives? What might some things be that we can do? Study the Word. Anyone else? Believe in the Word. Do that which we hear from the Word of God. Excellent. Right? Find someone with a brighter light and ask them to look around. How about getting alongside somebody who has a bright light? What about, and we have this opportunity to have the light of Christ Himself dwelling in our hearts through faith. Are there things done that bring on, are there things that can be done in my life, our lives, a church, or a people, or even a family that brings darkness? What brings darkness in the lives of any human being? Disobedience, okay, to God, God's Word. Unbelief, yes. Rebellion. So, rebellion would bring darkness into life, right? Why do men love darkness more than light? Their deeds are evil. They love darkness. Let's look at a few things that the Scripture says bring darkness. Proverbs 20, verse 20. Whoso curses his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness. Is it a sin to curse your father and your mother? What does God think about it? What does the devil do with it? Darkness descends upon that person who curses his father or his mother. It doesn't give an exception that says, unless they're sinners, or unless they're very wicked, no, there's no exception to it. One of the fastest ways to bring darkness over one's life or his family is to be involved in witchcraft. Witchcraft is darkness. And it brings on darkness very quickly. Witchcraft very specifically, it's like it puts a veil over your eyes and you cannot see clearly. And unless there's repentance of that witchcraft, that veil just kind of remains. What are some other things that bring darkness? 1 John 1.6. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. He that says he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now. Very clear, specific Scripture that says if you hate your brother, and that means your sister, your mother, basically if you hate a human being, you hate your brother, specifically your brother. You hate your brother. You can't stand him. You can't get along with him. You don't like him. You are in darkness. Hatred brings darkness. That's what the Bible says. He that hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness and knows not where he goes because darkness has blinded his eye. What about a nation? What about a family? If dad and mom take their children to the witch doctor. Oh, if all the fathers and mothers would recognize the need for themselves to be totally clean and pure, lest their children suffer from it. The Jewish people rejected the light of Christ. They rejected Jesus Christ, a whole people group as a whole. And Israel is still in darkness 2,000 years later, blinded to this very day because they rejected Jesus Christ as a whole. They put out that light and darkness is the result. And they are blinded to this day because they rejected Jesus Christ. Rejecting Jesus Christ brings darkness because Jesus Christ is the light. In fact, rejecting Christians for one reason or another brings darkness. There are churches that are no longer today because they rejected the light. They excommunicated that person because he was fellowshipping with other excommunicated believers and refused to not fellowship with them. And they excommunicated that person. And that church fell apart and failed. And there's no more. And the light went out. And the Holy Spirit went away. The Holy Spirit left. Anytime we resist light or work against light, we bring darkness to ourselves. Speaking evil one of another, putting others down. Ephesians 4.27 says give not place to the devil. What does it mean to give the devil place? What does it mean to give the devil a place to stand or a place to be in my life? What would you think if we would make a little spot up here in the front, just a real small corner here, just about a two by two, and we would give that place to the devil in the church house? What would you think of that? Not good. How much of that do we do in our own lives where we reserve an area of darkness and we do not bring it to the light? Maybe we don't know. Maybe we don't do it on purpose. But Satan does not wait for our permission. If we have sin, he takes advantage and sets up a place if he can. We allow him to set up a place to stand. Neither give place to devil. Don't give him any ground. Don't give him any reason. How have I given power or authority to the rulers of darkness in any of my life, my family, children? What about my business, my home? When Jesus came, he took authority over unclean spirits, over devils. He healed the sick. He raised the dead. He brought life. He opened the eyes of the blind. He opened the ears of the deaf, the lame walked and so forth. In most cases where he cast out evil spirits, they were simply called unclean spirits, unclean devils. I don't know why all people get possessed or seem to have possession there. I remember going to the Hutterite colony in Flat Willow back around 1989, a couple of years after we were saved. And there they told this little story. They were telling about how when they got saved and there was a revival tent put up in the town of Flat Willow, seven miles away from them, and they went out there night after night and heard the gospel. And the evangelist just was saying, if you believe in Jesus, just stand to indicate that you're going to follow him. And one night, one of them dared to stand. And the next night, a few more stood. By the time that revival was over, they were like all standing. About 21 young people and some of their married people. They went on to tell them the story how that next week, they came back to their, they were back in their colony. And they're looking around, they're saying, this place is so filthy and dirty and unclean, trash and everything. And they cleaned the place up. There was something within them. Having been cleansed within, being made clean inside, they looked around and saw the dirt everywhere else as well. And they cleaned up. And darkness had to flee and the unclean spirits had to flee. I was an unclean man, full of sin and darkness, wickedness, unrepentant sin. And my clothes, in a sense, as I was a farming, dairy farmer, I think showed that sometimes. I had an old ripped straw hat. I didn't care who saw me. I didn't. I'm a farmer. I work in the dirt. And I smelled like it. Today, I feel sorry for the storekeeper down there in the intercourse grocery store that I would go for groceries for my wife after being, manuring out the cow barn. Unclean. I was an unclean man. My clothes reflected it. My lifestyle reflected it. But when Jesus came in, I cleaned up. I believe there are unclean spirits today. There's a lot in the Old Testament, in the book of Leviticus, about being clean and unclean. Makes a huge difference in that. I believe unclean spirits have a lot, I should say a lot. I believe that there are unclean spirits plaguing some of us today. And we don't even recognize that there are unclean spirits doing it. Some of the things that God taught my wife and I when we were out in Montana was about that. We were having Bible study one evening at this couple's place. She was a Christian. He didn't believe at that time. They had a son that was like four. And they asked me if I would anoint their son with oil and pray over him because he wets his bed all the time. And he's laying in the couch there and the couch smells like it. Smells very unclean. I'm like, well, I never did this before. But they gave me the oil and we took the oil and the boy was sleeping. Put that oil on his head and prayed for him. And as I prayed for him, I knew God was doing something. This boy began to carry on a little bit. I finished praying. He kept on sleeping. He was delivered from bedwetting. That's strange to us. We didn't know. But I want to say this. Whether your child is old, maybe a teenager, maybe you're an adult here today. I was counseling one time with a 21-year-old young man. And the Spirit led me to ask him, I was like, do you ever wet your bed? Every night, he said. He was so ashamed. Well, the Lord had taught us a few things about that. And I said, there's some uncleanness in your life. He got on his knees and he began to repent of immorality. 21 years old. And he was set free. He stopped wetting his bed. Can you imagine? And maybe you can. Uncleanness. My wife and I went to visit a visiting family. A visiting family came here one time. We went to visit them just to kind of welcome them like the preachers should do. Not putting any pressure on you guys. After we visited them that evening, we went on the way home. I looked at my wife and she looked at me. I knew what she was thinking. There's uncleanness in that home. And a week or two later, it was manifested. If we as fathers and mothers are unclean, our children may struggle with nightmares. They may struggle with bedwetting. Is all bedwetting uncleanness? Probably is. And I just want to say every time that I've dealt with that issue, it was an unclean spirit. That's what I've learned. That's how God taught us. Darkness. What are the areas of darkness in my life? How have I given room for Satan to trouble me or trouble my children or our family? What are the areas of uncleanness that pervade? Are there any? There shouldn't be anything. There is no reason whatsoever that any one of us should be yielding to any kind of an evil spirit. Unclean or whatever it may be in our homes, in our lives. As parents, we have the responsibility to be clean and pure. If I as a father am unclean, my children will have struggles. My children will have problems. The young children will have problems. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. And they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them has a light shine. Isaiah 42, 16. And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not. I will lead them in paths that they have not known. I will make darkness light before them. Crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them and not forsake them. A verse for you, Carol. Isaiah 58, 10. If you draw out thy soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise in obscurity and thy darkness be as a noonday. So there are things we can do that will bring light to rise. And that which is darkness to us will be like the middle of the day with the sun shining. Darkness has to flee. If your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. Therefore, the light that is in you be darkness. How great is the light? How great is that darkness? But dearly beloved, we have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. But rather we prove them. The night is far spent, the days at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness. And let us put on the armor of light. First Peter 2, 9. You are a chosen generation. A royal priesthood. You are a holy nation. You're a peculiar people. And you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness. Into his marvelous light. My prayer is that if you have any darkness in any area of your life, you would recognize it. My prayer is that the Spirit of God will reveal to anyone here of any dark areas in your life. There's no need to live under that jurisdiction of darkness. When Christ, the light of the whole world, has shined into our hearts. To give us the knowledge of the light of the glory of God. In the face of Jesus Christ. Let's stand together. One of the things that we learned in the first two weeks of our being saved amidst the revival meetings. We learned that when the Spirit of God is convicting us of sin. It's best to deal with it right now. We found such deliverance and such freedom and such joy in confession of sin and repentance. I usually feel sorry for people who have not had the opportunity or have not taken the opportunity. Or have not recognized it. Have not been led into such thorough repentance. If God has spoken to your heart this morning, would you just respond to God? Come up here and kneel and pray. If there's any area of darkness in your lives. Or will you continue to allow that darkness to rule, to reign? And your life will get darker and darker. But if you repent and confess, the light will get brighter and brighter. It's just that simple. Father, we come in Jesus' name. Thank you for such simplicity of your word. Of light and darkness. Truth and lies. Thank you, Father, for sending Jesus, the light of the world into this world. To shine. And that light shined in darkness. The darkness could not comprehend it. The darkness could not figure out. The darkness could not hold on. The darkness had to go. So it is in the lives of individuals today, Father. We speak life and light into the hearts. The areas of darkness. Father, by your Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ, the righteous light of Christ, shine in our hearts today.