Delivered from the Power of Darkness

Once, like a blind man in prison, I dwelt. No freedom from my sorrow I felt. Then, like the blind man whom God gave back his sight, Praise the Lord! I saw the light.

I saw the light. I saw the light. No more darkness, no more night.

Now I am so happy, no sorrow in sight. Praise the Lord! I saw the light. I am missionary Richard Yerby in Japan.

And this sermon titled, Delivered from the Power of Darkness, is a continuation of my previous radio sermon, which was number 2025-26. Japanese Pastor Kenji's touching and tragic true story of Kenji's older sister committing suicide right before Kenji's very eyes. All my radio sermons audio are available on my website for anyone to listen to anytime.

That URL is Christisall.us. Separate those three words with two dashes. Christ-is-all.us. Please listen to my previous sermon of me reading Pastor Kenji's testimony, if you have not yet heard it. And would you please be my missionary helper by inviting everyone that you can to listen to my audio sermons.

I would greatly appreciate that. Goodbye to sin and things that confound. Naught of this world shall turn me around.

Daily I'm working, I'm praying too. And glory to God, I'm going through. He set me free, yes, He set me free.

And He broke the bonds of prison for me. I'm glory bound, my Jesus, to see. For glory to God, He set me free.

Pastor Kenji's testimony is the tragic reality of Japanese souls filled with spiritual darkness and hopeless despair in this nation filled with Buddhist and Shinto idols. Praise God for saving Kenji out of pitch black spiritual darkness when he was on the verge of suicide. Afterward, Kenji led each living member of his family, his brother, father, stepmother, and his mother to trust in Christ to save them eternally.

As I sit here in my house in central mountainous Japan, reading Kenji's story in Japanese occasionally, at times tears blur my vision. How wonderful that almost all of his immediate family have eternal life, but still what captures my mind so vividly and starts the tears flowing again is the family member who perished with no knowledge of the Savior Jesus Christ. Precious little Eiko.

I flip back in the booklet to the picture, the sketch of her eight or nine-year-old tear-stained, anguished little girl's face as she hugs a sobbing little five or six-year-old Kenji to her as she cries to him, Let's die together, Ken. When she did kill herself at about age 22, likely she went out into a Christless eternity, lost forever without hope. Though the rest of her family became Christians and thereby gained an eternal home in heaven, there is absolutely nothing they can ever do to change Eiko's fate.

If her fate be eternal torments in hell, fine. If so, soon at God's great white throne judgment of all lost and eternally doomed sinners, likely Eiko will be among them, summoned from hell to have her eternal fate of doom decreed to her and then be returned to the torments of hell to remain there forever. Likely God will have Eiko's daddy present at her final judgment, his hands ever so bloody with Eiko's blood.

Possibly Eiko will have the chance to say anything to her dad that she wants to say then. If so, what would she say to that dad who made her young life so miserable that she chose suicide? Well, Papa, you sure made out like a bandit, didn't you? Your harsh cruelty to all of your family scarred your little girl's tender heart so badly that it made life totally unbearable for me, causing me to kill myself in my lost and undone condition. Therefore, I am doomed to the torments of hell forever.

As my earthly father, God ordained that you give me much and loving care while I was growing up. But instead of doing that gravely important duty toward me, you dealt me such unbearable misery during my short life on earth that it soon sent me to a hell of never-ending torments. But you got saved, Papa, and therefore you will enjoy the bliss of heaven forever.

I sure do wish I could be up there with you, Dad, and with my two brothers and with Mother, all the family to be there around God's shining throne forever, except little old me. That is just too bad about me, isn't it? But as for you, Papa, congratulations. You sure made out like a bandit, didn't you? It's just too bad that I didn't fare so well, isn't it, my dear Papa? Echo's Dad will be so thankful for God's promise in Revelation 21 forward, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.

It will take a great miracle to wipe away all of Echo's Dad's tears and to take all that sorrow from his heart if and when he sees his precious little daughter judged and doomed to eternal torments, God having then made him fully aware of how largely he is responsible for sending her to hell. Oh, what an eternal tragedy. Christian parents, you only get one chance to train up your children in the way they should go and to love them where Christ is pure love, the way God ordained that you love them.

You must do it right. You must not fail. Train them up on your knees.

I do not only mean with them sitting on your knees when they are small, as you read the Bible to them, pray aloud for them, and sing hymns with them. I also mean with you on your knees daily, faithfully interceding for them and calling on God to help you train them up right. Ever so happy is your eternal responsibility toward your offspring.

Papas, your little daughter's heart is a most tender and delicate thing created by God to receive and to give much gentle feminine love during her lifetime. In particular, to give love to one man on earth during her earthly journey. And normally the first person that she falls in love with is you, Papa.

The first man is you. That is what God has ordained to be. What a pity it is that so many fathers wound and crush that tender little gentle feminine heart of their daughter beyond repair by being overly stern and overly harsh to her.

Even to the extent of being cruel to her. God forbid that you, Papa, make such a tragic mistake while rearing your precious little daughter. Several Christian women down through the years have related to me how that their Christian fathers undue harshness to them as they were growing up left them emotionally scarred for life.

How that it built up barriers in their heart against males, making for problems throughout their married life. And though they constantly call on God for help and for healing of that damage, still to some degree, the scars and the emotional problems remain for all their life on earth. Oh, what a tragedy.

You, Papas, must cleave ever so closely to God to ensure that you do not produce such a tragedy in your precious God-given offspring. You only have one chance to do it right, Dad. So by all means, do not fail to give that little daughter all the tender loving care she needs.

That doesn't mean to spoil her rotten. God will hold you accountable to discipline her properly, but you do not have to be harsh and cruel in doing so. Love God with all your heart and ask him to show you how to be a perfect dad.

Parents, think on precious little Eiko's fate. Her young life made so miserable by her own dad that her one thought during childhood was a desire to die when she should have been enjoying childhood and her teenage years. And when she became mature enough to be capable, she did end her miserable earthly existence, likely plunging into a Christless eternity.

Eiko's story has multiplied countless times throughout the world as untold numbers of little girls and boys suffer acutely at the hands of their parents as she did. You parents who are not Christians, no matter how kind and loving you are to your children as you rear them, likely they will follow in your footsteps all the way into the eternal, never ending flames of hell. And as you suffer those hot flames forever, words cannot describe the pain of your never ending heartbreak, knowing that you led your children into the same never ending torments.

Now is the day of salvation. Now is the time for you to repent to God and to trust in the Savior, Jesus Christ. Would you please pray aloud right now? Almighty God, my creator, please have mercy on me to create within me a repentant heart toward thee and true faith to trust in Jesus Christ to save me to the utmost.

Amen. Now I am climbing higher each day. Darkness of night has drifted away.

My feet are planted on higher ground. And glory to God, I'm heaven bound. I saw the light.

I saw the light. No more darkness. No more night.

Now I am so happy. No sorrow in sight. Praise the Lord.

I saw the light. Parents with all your heart seek God's help in rearing your children. They are most precious eternal souls that God has used you to create.

God has entrusted them into your earthly care. Your existence and their existence never end. Ever so heavy is your responsibility to ensure that your offspring have a blessed eternal existence.

Also, may God help all of us Christians to constantly bear in mind that there are lost souls around us suffering terribly in the deep misery of sin and are soon to enter into even greater never-ending sufferings in hell. May we Christians be vigilant to do everything we can to point them to Christ. Occasionally, glancing at these two booklets of Yonico and Kenji's life stories keeps me freshly burdened for the many lost Japanese around me.

Only about two or three Japanese out of a thousand profess to have repented to the true God and to have put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to save them. Deep, depressive, gloomy darkness fills the souls of lost Japanese as they vainly worship their many idols. Presently, suicide is all too common among Japanese teenagers and older people also, of course.

Always bearing that tragic fact in mind urges me to stand out in public long hours, displaying written gospel, preaching and singing audibly with my voice, and passing out Christian literature, holding forth the word of life to perishing souls. I do so when I am faint from the heat, numb from the cold, and when my voice is hoarse and almost gone, occasionally with my belly empty for days. Why do I do that? Because as likely as not, there is a Yonico or Eiko or Kenji within my hearing, someone on the verge of suicide.

Since 1978, I have stood before dozens of school gates, passing out to the children entering those gates, gospel literature and invitations to an evangelistic service, knowing that most of those children live in a Buddhist home and know nothing about their creator God and his salvation and eternal life. Think seriously on how intensely Eiko suffered all her short life on this earth till she ended it at the age of 22, just springing into adulthood. Think on how terribly Kenji suffered from the time his sister killed herself till God led him into Shalom Coffee Shop.

Think on how miserable and depressed the girl Yonico must have been when as a high school senior, she stepped in front of that train in the dead middle of the night. But the terrible sufferings and torments that they endured in this life cannot begin to compare to the eternal torments of hell. And all of the lost people around me, whether on the brink of suicide or whether enjoying the many worldly pleasures in this life, will soon enter the eternal torments of hell unless they get saved while here on earth.

My fellow Christian, possibly you are spending your free time and money on every selfish pleasure you can possibly obtain. Living it up while caring little or not about how the remainder of God's created human race is faring in this life. But by the grace of God, I'll do differently.

I want to be like perfect and upright Job, not quiet about the marvelous rescuing help that Christ has for sin wrecked lives on the brink of perishing forever. I thank God for the eternal life he has given me. And I long to tell everyone else that it is available to them also.

Neither was I quite, I declare justice, upright, perfect and righteous Job declares. Please pray along with me now. Lord Jesus, please make my heart like thine.

Give me sincere compassion over lost souls suffering in the misery of sin and headed for eternal destruction in hell. Lord, help me to truly be my brother's keeper. Please give me a heavy burden for lost souls so precious to thee.

You died, not one of them should perish. May that cause me to spend my life's energies in proclaiming Christ to the lost souls around me. Help me to daily let my little light shine, holding forth the words of life.

Please help me to be like perfect and upright Job, not being quiet about God, heaven, eternal salvation in the savior, Jesus Christ. I pray this for all other Christians now on earth also. Amen.

Christian friend, possibly, do you think like this? Oh, if only I were on a heathen, foreign mission field like Brother Richard, where all the people worship idols made by hand and are cloaked in that thick satanic darkness. And I would certainly stand before them daily proclaiming the light of the world to them. But here at home, well, it's different.

Don't you dare think like that. Many lost souls surround you. Some of them suffering as intensely as Yoneko, Eiko and Kenji were suffering.

Furthermore, all lost souls around you, no matter how happy and fun feel they are in this life, are headed for a hell of never ending torments in the lake of fire. They are your mission field, your neighbor, your responsibility. And you are duty bound to be a watchman unto them, warning them on judgment day, their blood will be on your hands if you fail to warn them as opportunity affords you.

As long as there is one lost soul within your hearing, within your reach, you are on a mission. So work your field faith. Be like Job and be able to proclaim, neither was I quiet.

How shall they hear except one be sent? Speak it and preach it unto them. Much loneliness is the lot of any true soldier. I regularly preach long hours in public, receiving mostly scorn and little or no praise.

Few or none of those Japanese who hear me welcome my Bible preaching. Previously, I mentioned that some Japanese people lock their house doors when they hear me preaching on the street outside nearby. I sometimes hear them approach the door from inside the house as quietly as possible.

If there is translucent glass in the door, I can usually see the person's silhouette through it as they reach for the lock and turn it slowly, hoping I will not hear it click. But usually I do hear that audible click, which says to me, you are not welcome in here. That's the clear message it sends to me, tending to make me feel shut out.

That feeling is usually most acute when I am preaching in the darkness of the early evening hours. The Japanese family in their brightly lit houses around me are eating, drinking and making merry while the TV is blaring amidst other such worldly uproars. My family and friends are on the opposite side of the world, and I am outside on that dark street, often cold, sometimes hungry, as supper may be very late for me, nonexistent on some nights.

I am there for one reason only, to be a good soldier of my captain and Lord Jesus Christ, to tell lost souls how to escape hell and go to heaven instead. And all too often I will hear the click of that door lock, which tells me such speech as that is not allowed into this house. But when that final click sounds of the lock to those pearly gates, this old soldier of the cross will then be at home.

Inside God's bright, glorious, splendid heaven, my only true home. That fine eternal home is constantly brightly lighted by my Savior's most glorious presence. Darkness of night never intrudes there.

Tragically for all Christ rejecters, that they will be locked out on the outside in the outer darkness of hell, they'll be there forever. The most awful fate. Christ rejecter listening to me right now.

You have opportunity to repent of your sins right now and to receive Christ while it is the day of salvation. I plead, will you don't delay. How I rejoice in the reality of my eternal home in God's blissful heaven.

How quickly approaches the time while I will enter into it. Meanwhile, as long as I'm a pilgrim and a stranger in this old sin sick world, I call on all souls to come to the Savior of the world to receive Christ is eternal life. So as to join me in heaven.

Neither was I quiet. Christian friend, let's strive to be like perfect and upright Job as God desires of us. May he help us to do so.

Would you pray with me now? Heavenly Father, I thank thee for the desire that thou has stirred up within me. Be like Job in this matter of not being quiet. Please continue to mold me into that perfection.

Please fan the flames of this desire to not be quiet about the making them hotter. Make my desire stronger to tell everyone I can the things they need to know about their creator. Fill me with godly courage needed to do that.

Break my heart over the terrible misery that so many sin sick souls are suffering in this present life. And even more so over the fact that all lost people are headed for never ending torments in the fires of hell. Fill me with godly compassion over lost souls.

Save me from living for my own selfish pleasure. Help me to be like the good shepherd and go seek those lost sheep. Guide me, showing me whom I should speak to.

Show me where to lift my voice out in public. Give me the exact words to say. Teach me the best ways to proclaim thy words so that it will glorify thee most greatly and will also help the greatest number of troubled souls.

Help me to do thy perfect will in this matter and glorify thee to the fullest extent possible. Thrive in to be like Job. Please empower me to be like Job for thy honor, thy glory, and for the eternal salvation of precious lost souls around me who are perishing daily.

I pray these things for all other Christians also. Amen. My brother in Christ listening to me now, the Lord is a man of war.

He tells us in Exodus 15, 3. Do you personally aspire to be a good soldier of his, one who endures hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ? A warrior who takes the most powerful weapon on earth, the sword of the Lord, which is the word of God. And you go forth offensively unto the camp of God's enemies, repeatedly sending that sword forth from your mouth into the ears of those enemies. Each such attack is victorious no matter what the outward appearances are.

No matter if the enemy kills you, you still have wrought a great victory. Your Lord gave his life on the cross for you personally. Will you personally give your own life for him?