please, to Isaiah 9, verses 1 and 2. My writing gets worse by the month. I had written Isaiah 9, verses 1 and 2, and whoever was copying that on the bulletin read that as 1 Samuel. But it's my writing and not other things. Isaiah 9, verses 1 and 2. God is speaking about the northern part of Israel, the part up next to the Gentiles. Nevertheless, the dimness shall be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations, the people that walked in darkness. have seen a great light. They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Goes on down in verse six to speak of unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. That's the light that he's referring to there in those verses. Turn now with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Beginning in verse 3. But if our gospel is hid, It is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. Now turn with me please to the reading from the Gospels, the Gospel according to John, as we continue on in this series. John chapter 8, beginning in verse 1. Let's begin with the last verse of chapter 7. I always keep getting backed up. The last verse of John 7. And every man went unto his own house. Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives, and early in the morning he came again into the temple. And all the people came unto him, and he sat down and taught them. And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery. And when they had set him in the midst, they say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last. And Jesus was left alone. and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee. Go, and sin no more. Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Then, look in verse 20, these words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in the temple. And no man laid hands on him, for his hour was not yet come. The words I'd particularly like us to focus on are those in the seventeenth verse there. Jesus spake unto them, saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Now children, those of you who are drawing pictures, The outline is going to follow this, the context of what Jesus is doing and saying here in these first thirteen verses of the gospel according to John chapter 8. Context in terms of John 1-7 and context in terms of the whole history of the nation of Israel. And then second, the spiritual significance, and I almost said significance. Sometimes, not now, but play with that word. It's a sign, but there's some significance to it. The spiritual significance of what Jesus does with the woman and what it means then for him to be the light of the world. And then finally, the third part is what all this means to you and me today. What all this means of what took place there. In his verse 13 verses of John 8. What this means to you and me today. Over and over in these chapters, Jesus claims to be God. God on earth in the form of man. God among us, God with us, walking the earth in the form of a man. But nevertheless, it's God. And He does the kind of things that only God could do in order to make it easier for you and me to know that He really is God and that that is just that important. It required that much time on His part. like changing water into wine. It was a change of kind. Only the Creator could have done that. If you look back into the chemistry involved in it, only the Creator could have done that. And cleansing the temple. Only God would have had the right to do what He did that day there in John 2 when He cleansed that temple. He cleaned it out. He proved his ownership of that by talking and working with people such as Nicodemus, one day a noble, godly, good man whom everyone respected so highly, a Jewish member of the Sanhedrin, and then the Samaritan woman on another day, a half-breed, a little better than a prostitute. And then healing a certain man, a certain man, not all the others, but just a certain man and doing it, deliberately doing it on the Lord's day. And then directing the man who was healed to get up and carry his bed to do some work, proving his ownership of the physical body, proving his ownership of the Lord's day, claiming to have the authority of God the Father because he is God, and feeding 5,000 people with five loaves and two fishes. These are the kinds of things that only God could do. He is either a liar, a lunatic, or a man who's deluded, or he is who he says he is. And there were a lot of people who were on the spot at that particular point in life and time who are gradually coming to the conclusion, you know, this man who is man really is God, John the baptizer. Andrew, John the writer, Peter, Philip, Nathaniel, the disciple band. And then in addition to that, the Samaritan woman. And in addition to that, Nicodemus. These people who are on the spot are coming to the conclusion that he is God. And he's laying a very careful foundation for that. And one that we dare not ignore or take for granted As so many Christians do, I never thought that he wasn't. I just never really thought very much that he really is. But it's also true that many people just believed on him because of what they could get out of him. Food. They could get food. Their bellies were hungry. He could start in New York with a train full of bread and have more bread when he got to San Francisco than he did when he left New York. And they said, that's the kind of man we want in our government. We'll make him our king. And they wanted healing. And they wanted the thrills of those great miracles that he was accomplishing. But Jesus knew what was in all men. And he made a strong, specific distinction between those who were wanting him for what they could get out of him And those who were taking him at his word and believing in him, trusting in not only who he said he was, but in what he said he would do. He said, I and my father are one. And they believed him. The fact is that even his enemies were understanding what he was saying there. He is God. I and my father are one. And some hated him because he said that and was proving that point. There were those who hated him because of that, but there were others who loved him. They believed him and they trusted in him. And he made a clear distinction between the spurious faith and the genuine faith of those men and women. Some tried to take selfish advantage of him, but the fact is, Everyone was understanding that he claimed to be God. And they are making some kind of response to his claim to be God. Furthermore, Jesus is very anxious that we would know what kind of God God is. In chapter 6, he said, I am the bread of life. I'm not only God, but I am the kind of God who is the bread of life. I'm the God who is concerned about your physical needs. I know when you're hungry. I know every need that you will ever have, ever have had. I'm concerned about those needs. I'm the God who provided physical bread that I'm not aware of. And I will take care of it. In chapter 7, he said, in effect, I am the water of life. I am the rock which traveled with that nation of Israelites, a million people, for 40 years. I'm the rock that traveled with them. And whenever there was a need for more fresh living water, not stagnant, stale water out of a system, fresh living water, I simply had Moses touch that rock. And that water came gushing out so that you could keep on drinking and keep on living in the middle of the desert. Now today, in chapter 8, Jesus makes another very startling claim there in verse 20, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. And this claim, too, is within the context of the history of Israel and this feast of tabernacles that they were just finishing. You remember in chapter 7 how God had commanded the people from the Old Testament times to remember those wanderings for 40 years in the wilderness? Don't forget those. Actually move out of your sealed houses and move into those open tents on the streets. Camp out. As some of the children do their pictures out, camp out. for a whole week so that you will remember that history and of how that nation of people kept trusting in me and learning every day as they went out to trust in me for everything they ate and everything they drank. Especially now, He's provided water for them in the wilderness. And at the close of that chapter, Every man, every one of those who'd been living out in their booths in these little tents, handmade tents, bushes, moved back into their home. That's why we went back to read that last verse out of that last chapter. They moved back into their homes. There was another very significant thing that took place on the day after the feast. In the second court of the temple, We're told there in verse 20 that that's where Jesus went, to the second court of the temple, the treasury, where they had the seven collection boxes. And it's also called the Court of the Women. The women were allowed in that particular court. There were four huge candelabra lit there the day after the Feast of the Tabernacles. There were four huge candelabra that were lit. It was a ceremony called the illumination. And there would have been a blaze of light that filled not only the whole temple, but spilled on out into the whole city. It burned all night there in the court of the women in the treasury. It symbolized that pillar of fire that the Israelites followed through the wilderness where God guided them with a pillar of fire. And in verse 20, Jesus deliberately went to that court, the treasury, the women's court, the day after the Feast of the Booths. And He, in effect, was saying, you remember that blaze of light that was here last night? You remember that? How it burned all night and then burned out? Well, I am come to tell you that I am the light of the whole world, and whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life, and it never will burn out." And those words would have been particularly telling and important because of what had just taken place the night before. Now, in these first 12 verses of chapter 8, this incident with the woman who was taken in adultery, Jesus is showing them and us the spiritual significance of all this and what it means for Him to be the light of the world and the light of life. Jesus had been there that day from very early in the morning teaching. And while he was there in that particular court of the temple, the teachers and Pharisees brought in a woman. And they made her stand there in the midst of the whole crowd while they explained her case. And I wish you'd see that shivering, fearful woman being made a spectacle of. They were using her case, according to the Scriptures, to trap Jesus. to have that which they could accuse him of. And they wanted to trap him. If Jesus had said, yes, go ahead and stone him. That's what Moses said to do. For any person caught in adultery that way, and she would have known that, she would have been expecting to die. In the next few minutes, she would have been expecting to die. Moses said to stone her. And if Jesus had said, go ahead, he would have been in harmony with Moses. But he would have been in exact contradiction to the Roman law, which said, you Jews may no longer execute people. If he had said, don't stone her, because we're living under the authority of the Roman right now, then they would have said, yeah. See, he's out of harmony with Moses. So regardless of which decision he would make, He would have been guilty. They would have that which they could accuse him of. And so Jesus ignored it all. He realized it was a trap to trap him. And he ignored it all, and he bent over and began to write in the sand. And that should have been all the cue they needed. But they kept prodding him with more questions. What to do? You who set yourself up as a judge right here in this court of the women, now what are you going to do? And finally Jesus stands and he speaks to them as a judge would speak who is in control of the situation in his own court. He realizes that they are thinking that the thing that gives them the authority to stone her is the fact that they have not done that particular sin, at least they hadn't been caught. He realizes that that's their reasoning, faulty reasoning. They had been appointed to do that. And if they had fallen back on that authority, it would have been different. But he realizes that in their minds, they're thinking that they were innocent enough to stone her. insofar as they had not done that particular sin. And so he said, all right, let him who is without sin, any sin among you, cast the first stone at her. See, the law was a little different in those days, and we could learn from that today in America. Because any man who stood up in testimony against another person, and it was capital punishment, the men or women or whoever it was who made that testimony first had to throw the first stone that resulted in the execution. Somehow or other that helped stop the lying, the plagiarizing, the promising to tell the truth and then not doing it. As they began thinking about that, let him that is without sin among you cast the first stone at her. They began going out, beginning with the oldest. Why the oldest? I think he had the longest record of sin, and he realized that. And so beginning with the oldest, they went out. And he rises now. And he sees that they're all gone. And he says, woman, where are thine accusers? There must be at least two accusers. Where are thine accusers? She said, there are none. And then he, as the one person who was qualified to cast that first stone, said, neither do I condemn thee. Go. And sin no more. go and sin no more. And all through these chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 as you're finding I know when you do your study and make sure that you see how these chapters flow into each other All through these chapters from 1 to 7, the darkness has become more and more intense. The hatred of Jesus, more and more personal. Now they had all gone out without really confessing their sin. If only they had come back and confessed their sin, come back to that light. But they've gone out, which is further confession of their sin, really. It's total darkness. This is the picture right here in chapter 8 where it's total moral spiritual darkness. And Jesus is the one light. I don't know whether you've ever been in a room or not where it's total darkness and then someone strikes a match. It's just a little bit of light. But what a tremendous light that little bit of light is. And that's what the situation is there in John 8. everybody saw that light. Jesus said it that way, I am the light of the world. Whosoever followeth me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. But when Jesus said that to her, go and sin no more, he was not saying, ego te absolvo. I forgive you, I just will gloss over it. he was not telling her just to forget about it and that he would forget about it and she was just to go on from there he was challenging her to trust in him and to follow him and what it was that he was going to be doing in the next few days to make her whole life right if she would trust in him you see he knew two things about her and about every one of us for that matter too You could not, she could not, I could not, by our own selves, ever keep from doing that sin again. And so far as she herself was concerned, she could not help doing that. And yet, he was not tormenting her or us either when he says, don't ever do that again. giving her an impossible standard, which she couldn't possibly live up to. He was asking her to come and join Him, to come to Him as the light of life, the Savior. And He is offering to make her able not to do that again. To keep from doing that sin again, He has offered to be the light in her life, to cause her to see that sin as he himself saw it, so that it would become repulsive to him, to release her from the awful blackness of her sin and the hopelessness of that, and to become the light of life in her life. Paul said it this way in 2 Corinthians 4, and that's why we read that this morning, that she would know how his light would shine in her heart to give her the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. and that she would have that treasure in her own physical body made out of clay to prove to the whole world that the all-surpassing power for living that life is not of her, but is of God and Him alone. You see, Christ could say that to her, neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more. simply because he had a five-fold relationship to the law. My son Bill reviewed that, and I liked that review because it was brief and yet comprehensive, and it contains the whole essence of biblical theology. First, Jesus himself had written that law. It was his finger on Mount Sinai that wrote that law. Thou shalt not commit adultery. That's the particular law that's involved here now. And he had lived that law perfectly. Never once had he broken one word, one dot of an I or cross of a T of that law, even to his enemies. They said there's no sin, no crime in him. And third, he had taught that to everyone everywhere, every place he'd gone before he came to earth as well as after. She knew that law. She understood that law. She had been taught that from the time that she was a little girl. She knew and understood that law, understood it. She was guilty of breaking that law, and she knew it. And fourth, Jesus was very soon now going to pay the penalty that she should have had to pay, death. for breaking that law. Very soon now, Jesus was going to the cross. His body would take that sin if she would trust Him as she trusted Him in His own body on that cross. And fifth, He wouldn't stay dead. He'd rise again out of the tomb. He'd come back. in order to relive His life in her so that she not only would not, but she would not want to do that again. He's offering to relive and make her able to live these commandments, His laws, in and through her in His light. And so, when Jesus is saying to her and to all of us, I am the light of life. Will you come to me as the light of life?" These others saw that light and they ran away. They really didn't want it. Not when it got that close. They didn't even want to hear about it. You know there are people who don't want to hear about that today. There really are. And if that's you, then think carefully. Why is it? that this is so irritating to me. Why is it that I don't like to hear about that? Why is that? You cannot stay neutral in the presence of that kind of light. Either you will come to the light, to trust in that light, to believe in that light, to receive that light, so that now you have the light of Christ in your own heart and life, and become His light to other people. Or you see that light, And you try to get away from it. You don't like to hear about that. Some of you probably have been in a cave, or maybe in an old house. And you take the flashlight. And I've been there, where it was just covered with bats. But as you get that light on them, you'll see them begin to flutter and flutter. And if you hold it on them long enough, pretty soon they'll run, just the same way these men did, in the presence of that light that is Jesus Christ. There's no such thing as a mixture of light and darkness called gray. It's one or the other. Terrible, terrible tension and pressure that people have a hard time explaining. About why it is that I don't like to be reminded of this. See that light, but won't come to that light. And Jesus said, I am the God who has proven himself. for millions of people in countless generations. I am the bread of life, I am the water of life, and now I am the light of life. Will you come to me day by day, and step by step, and year by year, just as I led that whole nation of people out of Egypt and the darkness of Egypt into the light of Israel, into the light of my own land. I am the light of the world. Can't you hear Jesus saying these words and what those would have meant to the woman who's standing shivering there, exposed to everyone under those circumstances? You know, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. In a moment, we're going to be singing out of Psalm 36 in stanza six, and in that purest light of thine, we clearly light shall see. And that's really what he's explaining to her there about himself and his work in her life. Let's bow our hearts. Father in heaven, thank you for the carefulness with which through these chapters of your book But in the person of your son Jesus, the Christ, you've explained yourself to us as being not only bread and water, but as being light. That which makes us able to understand the rightness of right and the wrongness of wrong, and to hate the wrong, and to love the right. God, thank you for making it so plain. Thank you for illustrating that there that day in the life of that woman. God, I thank you for the way you keep making it plain to me and providing a basis for my praise of you and for our praise, continuing praise of you. God, now bless us as we would understand what this light is in such a way that we would understand how it is that you keep shining your light through us to others. We just desire to be a light, your light, to others. God bless us in understanding those who would be interested but not really interested. Those who would be amazed but would then run away. God, on the other hand, bless us as your light would so shine through us that others too would want to know you, whom to know is life eternal. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.