The Judgment of Darkness

[0:00] Can I get an amen from the front row over here? No? All right, let's get into Exodus chapter 10. Thank you for being here this morning. I'm glad to see you all here. I'm glad to see you made a decision on your own to get up and come to church.

[0:13] And you see it as profitable to you. You see it as the right thing to do, perhaps, in obedience to Christ. And so praise the Lord for that. You and me are brothers and sisters.

[0:25] We're on the same mind frame or mind set there. Wavelength, wave frame, frame of mind. I'm going to say how I want to say it. All right, it's Exodus chapter 10.

[0:39] Last week we took a look at the plague of locusts, which took a good bit, the first 20 verses of the chapter. The locust came through and covered the face of the earth.

[0:50] They cleaned up everything that was left behind from the storm of hail. And Egypt is now even further destroyed. And what we noticed last week was that there was three separate meetings in this passage between Moses and Aaron and Pharaoh.

[1:05] Normally it's two, if even two. But normally there's a beginning and an ending. And this time there was a third. There was one in the middle that we looked at and we studied. And we analyzed the talk of Pharaoh in that time.

[1:18] We analyzed that it was revealing of his character. Some things about Pharaoh. And really because we understand that he's a type of the devil, our adversary.

[1:30] Then we were learning some things about his character. And it was telling us a few things about his manners. And what we studied is really basically in verses 8 through 11.

[1:42] We studied that our adversary, the devil, is a manipulator and an intimidator. And I won't cover all the ground again. But we studied also that he's a liar. John 8, 44.

[1:53] And the father of it. And he's a resister. He resists. And whenever that comes up in your life, it's the same spirit working inside of you to resist and say, Not so, Lord.

[2:06] Which we commonly do when God deals with our hearts about things. We resist it. We rebel. We come up with excuses quickly to not obey the Lord.

[2:16] And then finally we saw that he was a schemer. He's a schemer. And he was very well content to allow the men to leave. But he was not content to leave, to allow the little ones to leave his land.

[2:28] He wants to keep the children. He wants to separate the fathers from the children. He's a schemer. He sees that as something that plays into his hand. And go ahead, let the men leave.

[2:39] They'll be back. But I'm not letting the kids go as we took a look at that last week. So there was the message there from the beginning of the chapter. Now we're going to conclude the chapter in chapter 10 and see the ninth plague.

[2:50] And so let's read together, if you will, follow along from Exodus 10, verses 21 to 29. The Bible says, And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.

[3:08] And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. And they saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days.

[3:18] But the children of Israel had lightened their dwellings. And Pharaoh called unto Moses and said, Go ye, serve the Lord. Only let your flocks and your herds be stayed. Let your little ones also go with you.

[3:31] And Moses said, Thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our God. Our cattle also shall go with us. There shall not an hoof be left behind. For thereof must we take to serve the Lord our God.

[3:44] We know not with what we must serve the Lord till we come thither. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go. And Pharaoh said unto him, Get thee from me.

[3:54] Take heed to thyself. See my face no more. For in that day that thou seest my face, thou shalt die. And Moses said, Thou hast spoken well.

[4:07] I'll see thy face again no more. Now I may not have read it with a whole lot of fervor there, but this scene is pretty tense, closing off this chapter here.

[4:20] Pharaoh, I believe, he's at his breaking point. He's boiling. You can feel from these nine chapters, these ten chapters getting into this, you can feel that this is getting close to a climax.

[4:36] I mean, little by little, you see Pharaoh the needle moving. He's trying to negotiate with Moses and Aaron. Little, retirement, and nothing is working in his favor.

[4:48] The reason is he has no power to be negotiating. He is losing every round, and he's losing badly. He's not recovering from any of this. So even in his attempts to negotiate with him, he has no leverage to do it.

[5:03] His power over them is just kind of becoming meaningless, because the God of the Hebrews is destroying them, and one thing after another.

[5:14] And he continues to do it. He's not just making his life miserable. He's making a fool out of him, the leader, the king. And I'd probably say that may be the worst part of it all for a king who is always just full of pride and power to be made a fool of and have these men come before him and make these demands, and he keeps pushing back on them, but every time he does, he loses and loses, and it's just getting worse and worse, and his people are turning against him.

[5:41] The land, the economy is destroyed. The men said last week, we read it in verse 7, knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed? And this man's just hardened with his heart, holding on.

[5:54] Now this scene, I believe, is pretty tense. And in verse, we read this here in the passage, that this, the ninth plague is darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.

[6:10] It's said in the next verse, thick darkness. Now, I think this is pretty wild. Some of these things have been just gruesome scenes of dead animals everywhere, and the stink of the dead frogs and the blood in the river and all the fish and things dying and the stink of all of that death.

[6:31] And then there's these boils on their bodies, just painful, miserable times. But this thing here is nothing like the other plagues. It's actually the last plague before the firstborn's death.

[6:48] And this last plague here, this ninth plague, is of thick darkness. There's something about this thing that it's not necessarily painful.

[7:00] It's not necessarily destructive in the economy or in the land in that sense. Three days of darkness. Why is this such a big deal? Why would God use this or send this?

[7:11] It really got me thinking about darkness and taking up quite an intense Bible study this week. Looking at the word darkness. And I noticed that God uses darkness.

[7:23] Here he uses it as a plague, as a judgment upon the land of Egypt and Pharaoh. I think it's both interesting and also revealing. And so what I'd like to do is try to get some understanding of what this is and then of other ways that it's used.

[7:40] Now, the topic of darkness is quite an extensive and deep topic, whether you really consider it or not. It's just a plague, number nine, and on we go.

[7:53] But to really delve into it, it's got some substance to it. And I'm not going to necessarily give you everything there is to give you about it. But I will give you what I can.

[8:03] And not every mention of darkness in the Bible is in a reference to judgment, but there are so many mentions, I try to categorize them and give them kind of a pretty good structure that will help you see the judgments that God uses darkness for.

[8:23] Now, it may not cover everything, but I think, pardon the pun or the irony, but I think it'll be enlightening. It'll be illuminating, the study of darkness. I might add that this is going to be a little different than your normal sermons of pulling out some truth and application out of the text.

[8:41] But we're going to study darkness today because God chose, interestingly to me, God chose to use darkness as a plague, as one of his great and terrible judgments upon the land of Egypt.

[8:52] And it's not the first time that he did something like this. And so that's what we're going to study this morning. Now, understand what we're reading is not an eclipse.

[9:04] It's not some solar or lunar or some heavenly body alignment. That's not the case here at all. And if I asked you for a definition of darkness, somebody might just come up with something that's kind of really generic and say, well, it's the absence of light.

[9:20] But that's not a good definition. That doesn't describe what this is either. That's not even accurate at all to say what's going on here, that God sends darkness upon this land. It might sound simple, but it's not a good definition.

[9:34] Darkness, don't think of it here as just empty space where there's no light. Don't think of it like that at all. But rather, listen to Isaiah 45 and verse 7.

[9:44] God says, I form the light and I create darkness. It's not just the absence of something, but rather it's a creation of God.

[9:59] And I'm going to show this to you and we're going to primarily for the use of judgment. God says that he creates darkness and this darkness is tangible.

[10:09] It's something that can be applied and it can be removed. And a key phrase we read this morning is that it's darkness which may be felt. That's not just some generic language to say it was bad.

[10:24] It has tangible physical properties. So it's not a vacuum. It's not an eclipse. It's not the absence of light. It's something that God created as a judgment upon Pharaoh and his people.

[10:38] So I have to understand a few things. First of all, turn back to Genesis chapter 1. And what I'm going to do is give you five categories for darkness. And you might write these down and I'll give you some references and maybe make some mentions.

[10:53] You can study on your own if you choose to or keep with you and think on and mull over. But this is going to be a little more intense and there's going to be some deeper points this morning that again it's not our everyday Sunday morning material.

[11:08] But this is what we got this morning and it's the direction it went as I studied and mentally exhausted myself trying to figure this out.

[11:22] I'm going to say some things this morning that if you can just take the Bible at face value, like the words in your Bible, you'll have no trouble. You'll be able to believe what the Bible teaches.

[11:35] But if you don't believe it or if you argue it or you like to listen to other guys who don't believe it, then don't get mad at me and don't come at me with it. Just take it or leave it. But let's study something here.

[11:46] Genesis chapter 1. Now understand verse 1. It says, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. When did he do that? In the beginning.

[11:57] But was God not around before the beginning? Absolutely. Before the beginning of time. Before his voice comes before any creative act.

[12:08] Remember in the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. The Word was God. All things were made by him. Without him was not anything made that was made. Do you remember in John chapter 1, you could maybe scribble this beside that, but that word with a capital W is later called something else with a capital letter?

[12:27] Does anybody know what that is off the top of your head? In that very passage, John 1? Starts with an L. Light. Light. The true light.

[12:38] Which lighteth every man that comes into the world. Jesus Christ is called the light. Later he's called the light of the world. Now that's just something for later on or for just to put away. But in the beginning, God created.

[12:52] But that God, the word God in verse 1, John says later in his epistle, God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

[13:05] So in the beginning, God is light and in him is no darkness. This light that God is in his nature and person created heaven and earth.

[13:19] The heaven and the earth. But where'd the darkness come from? Because verse 2 says, And the earth was without form and void. And then in verse 2 of this Holy Bible, you hear the word darkness.

[13:38] As a matter of fact, the word shows up before the word light shows up. Darkness shows up in your Bible. That's interesting to me. Darkness was upon the face of the deep.

[13:49] Now I want you to consider that God as a light and a pure holy being dwelling in the light that no man can approach unto. In him is no darkness at all.

[14:00] The Bible says that God he is before all things. Darkness is a created thing created of God. We see in Isaiah 45, 7 again.

[14:12] I create darkness. First, God creates the heaven and the earth. In the light of God, if you could imagine it or see it like that. In the light of God, he creates the heaven and the earth.

[14:26] In the beginning, this is what it was. So before chapter 1 in verse 2, there is a change, a judgment that takes place that Moses does not give us information on.

[14:40] He doesn't, he's giving us snapshots of creation. He is not spending time discussing something that happened after God in his light created the heaven and the earth.

[14:51] Verse 2 does not look like a glorious creation of God where it is good. He creates the earth and it says without form and void.

[15:02] And let me add to this, darkness upon the face of the deep and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. What is this deep and what is this waters?

[15:16] What in the world is that stuff at all? Is that heaven? Is that earth? Because in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And then we have a reference to the deep and the waters.

[15:29] What in the world is that? If it's not the earth, what is it? Is it the heavens? The heaven, rather? So there's some information missing.

[15:42] There's some information being given here that just doesn't seem to correlate with the first verse is what I'm showing you.

[15:53] There's something happened there. A judgment occurs that leaves the earth without form. and void, submerged in water, and in darkness.

[16:06] That's interesting stuff. Now, I don't have the time to go on this one, but you go to Jeremiah chapter 4, you can almost, you'll see those very four things of the earth being without form and void and uninhabited.

[16:21] It's in darkness. You'll see those three things. And in Jeremiah 4, it is the prophecy prophecy of the return and destruction of Jesus Christ. And the point is, it's an outcome or a result of judgment.

[16:36] It's for the earth to be destroyed without form, void, and there was no light, it says in Jeremiah 4. The heavens gave no light. Now, again, that's another side note, food for thought.

[16:48] We're trying to get to this very first category here. there's a judgment that occurs and I'm going to call this category one a global darkness. The first mention of darkness is a global darkness.

[17:03] It says in verse 2 that darkness was upon the face of the deep. What does that mean? The face of, what is that? That's the surface.

[17:14] That's, you can see the word face inside surface. On the surface of the deep or later the spirit of God moved upon the face of, there it is again, the waters.

[17:25] So in verse 2 you have a reference to the deep and to the waters which are the same thing but upon the face at the top is darkness. A created darkness.

[17:39] A judgment upon something. Now, I know this is deep in thought for you and it's more than you typically handle on Sunday morning. Just try to stay with me. We'll move into something lighter but there'll be little bits and pieces all throughout that we can kind of grab on and maybe put together and try to understand, learn something this morning.

[17:58] I believe that this darkness which is upon, it says, the face of the deep is something that God created. Some, I can't say anything but beyond maybe a thick and heavy layer that is restricting God's light from entering into this state of destruction, this submerged earth deep underwater in what some call the abyss or the Bible calls it the deep.

[18:28] And God, I always kind of imagined that this was in darkness because the waters are so deep and just like in our oceans, light can't get down to the bottom but that doesn't say that at all.

[18:38] The Bible says the darkness was upon the face of the deep. It was upon it. So studying and believing the words of the Bible, it's not necessarily the waters themselves that are restricting the light but it's something God put upon the face of the deep, something he created, darkness.

[18:56] Alright, moving on, verse number two says that the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. This is where the darkness was stationed. The spirit of God displaces or at least he might just say he opens a way for the light of God to penetrate now down through the darkness and into the waters, into the deep.

[19:20] It says in verse three God said let there be light and as that happens verse four God saw the light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness and this is before the sun, moon and stars.

[19:37] This is before the firmament wherein the earth and the sun, moon and stars hung the earth upon nothing and the sun, moon and stars exist. This is before all of that. So this is hard to picture.

[19:48] It's hard to understand. I don't pretend to have it down and don't profess to understand exactly what God placed upon the face of the deep but we can just take what we can get and try to understand and declare what the scripture says.

[20:07] So God's light is now penetrating into the deep because the Lord divided the light from the darkness. The darkness was created for a purpose for judgment and it continues you should know that it continues.

[20:25] It hasn't been taken away. God just divided the light from the darkness but he hasn't rid the world and universe of darkness. darkness. That's for sure true.

[20:37] Now I might point this out later on you could fast forward in your mind all the way to the end of your Bible in Revelation 21 and 22 and what God does is he recreates a new heavens and a new earth and there's no more sea as in the waters and in that new heaven and new earth it says in Revelation 21 there's no night there.

[21:02] The darkness is gone. The Lord rids this judgment of darkness from Genesis 1 from something before and in his new recreation remember just before that in Revelation 20 that the element Peter says the elements will dissolve with a fervent heat and that the heavens and earth are going to flood from the face of him that sat upon a throne as things fled away and there is no more place for them they're gone forever and then he recreates new heavens new earth no more sea and no darkness in that new one and again God is light and God is dwelling with them and they shall be his people and he'll be a God God now dwelling with man again and there's no darkness and in the city there's no need for the sun to shine by day and no need for the moon by night because the Lamb of God is the light thereof it's a transformation a different creation and there's no darkness to it now back to category one a global darkness a judgment that has been since divided not necessarily rescinded and not eliminated but he has divided it now focusing specifically on the surface of the deep what is that darkness what would that be because we got a little glimpse or thought from

[22:26] Exodus chapter 10 that it's a thick darkness and in Exodus 10 it was a darkness which may be felt now that's going to bring us to our second category because come back to Exodus and look at chapter 14 our second category of darkness is a local darkness first a global darkness and now a local darkness much like what we read over the land of Egypt but what was that what did God put upon that land well just a few chapters later when he's leading them out of the land he's leading them by something special and for sake of time let's just look at chapter 14 and verses 19 and 20 Exodus 14 19 and 20 and the angel of God which went before the camp of Israel removed and went behind them why because Pharaoh was coming with his army and they were all afraid so the angel of

[23:29] God which went before the camp removed and went behind them and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face and stood behind them the pillar of the cloud behind them and it came to pass I'm sorry it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel and it was a cloud and darkness to them but it gave light night by night to these so that the one came not near the other all the night God took a pillar of cloud it was the angel of God that was traveling before them from back at the end of chapter 13 and he says it was a cloud and darkness to the Egyptians all right look at chapter 19 of Exodus come to 19 later they're gonna God's gonna lead them all the way up to a mountain mountain called Mount Sinai and he's gonna use darkness as a barrier to separate between his holy person descending down to this planet and the people below and as he comes down to the mount he makes very clear warning don't let anybody even come near this mount don't even touch it lest ye die but for his presence to come down he puts darkness as a barrier a thick and heavy darkness look at what the wording of the

[24:51] Bible says it was verse 9 Exodus 19 verse 9 the Lord said unto Moses lo I come to thee in a thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with thee and believe thee forever they're gonna hear but they're not gonna see because of the thick cloud look a little bit later in that chapter verse 16 it came to pass on the third day in the morning there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount and the voice of the trumpet and so forth and the Lord shows up and you could read on how that goes now one more verse flip over to chapter 20 Exodus 20 and verse number 21 and the people stood afar off and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was now this is a thick cloud aka thick darkness just like Exodus chapter 10 said came upon the land of Egypt a thick darkness a darkness which may be felt later on in

[25:59] Deuteronomy 11 or chapter 4 verse 11 this is a new generation of people about to go into the to the Canaan's land and Moses recalls this day that we just read about in at the Mount Sinai and he said the mountain burned with fire under the midst of heaven with darkness clouds and thick darkness now I want to compare this with one other verse of scripture you don't need to turn but in first Kings chapter 8 King Solomon is built a magnificent temple and they've placed the furniture in the place it belongs everything set up and ready to go and the priest I'll read the passage it says and it came to pass when the priest were come out of the holy place that the cloud filled the house of the Lord so that the priest could not stand to minister because of the cloud for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord then saw then spake Solomon the Lord said that he would dwell in the thick darkness that word thick darkness shows up a few times and every time it's a cloud a thick cloud blackness thick darkness this is local darkness so it's thick clouds of darkness that are a covering or even a shield you might say from God's holy presence in some cases think about when

[27:19] Jesus Christ was crucified the writers of the gospel said that from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour in Revelation 16 in the tribulation the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast and his kingdom was full of darkness and they gnawed their tongues for pain and this is a local darkness I believe the next few vials that are poured out it's upon the Euphrates River it's upon a city that gets separated and destroyed these are local things so there's local darkness local darkness used as a plague or a sign or a judgment from God and there's more let's look now at the third category of individual darkness darkness turn to Acts chapter 13 Acts chapter 13 I'll admit here I'm a little confused about something that I'm just going to throw out I'm not sure what to fully make of this but there's an individual judgment on certain men at times and

[28:23] I'm categorizing this from global to local to now individual darkness because of the very wording of the scripture it's something God does it's it's associated with a blindness with not you know being able to see just like in Exodus 10 they saw not one another I can't say that everybody that blind is you know under this judgment of God for I'm not trying to portray that and yet there's the Bible records these certain instances of blindnesses or of individuals that are in darkness and here's one case that this sheds a little light on something as we study watch for Acts chapter 13 and start in verse number 8 there's this sorcerer that is coming against Paul but Elimus the sorcerer for so is his name by interpretation withstood them seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith then Saul who's also called Paul filled with the Holy Ghost set his eyes on him and said oh fool of all subtlety and all mischief thou child of the devil thou enemy of all righteousness will thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord and now behold the hand of the Lord is upon thee and thou shalt be blind not seeing the sun for a season now watch the last part of this verse 11 and immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness and he went about seeking something to lead him by the hand this is something supernatural this is not just somebody had you know an accident or a deficiency in his in his genes or something if you want to call it that this is a judgment of God upon a man a an enemy of all righteousness a child of the devil and he's smitten and stricken with blindness but the scripture says it fell on him a mist isn't that interesting what in the world you can put a question mark if you want to I that's wild immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness this is not poetic wording this is literal truth of something God is doing he's he's something he's using to blind an individual and so far we've seen thick clouds and darkness and now darkness that would be felt and now a mist is another word the Bible puts in a mist and a darkness remember he put something on the surface the face of the deep he created it all right now we're in a category three this individual darkness consider look at chapter 9 of acts acts chapter 9 and this is Saul when he was breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord and he's looking to round him up and take him to prison he's trying to exterminate the known world of anybody who believes in

[31:29] Christ and so a light shines from heaven the Lord amen and Saul ends up let me find the verse here he gets knocked down because in verse verse 8 says Saul arose from the earth and when his eyes were opened he saw no man so his eyes are open but they're not functioning something took place some people say well he was blinded by the great light of Jesus Christ yeah maybe but here's something a little too interesting for me to just pass off and say that the light blinded his eyes for a few days by the way it was three days in verse 9 that he was without sight just like Exodus chapter 10 three days and here we are in verse chapter 9 look at verse 18 when Ananias comes upon him and puts his hands on him and he tells them to receive his sight in verse 17 verse 18 it says immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales and he received sight forthwith what in the world is that I don't have an answer for you but there was something like scales that were on him covering his eyes that had to fall off and

[32:54] God using this man Ananias to put his hands on him it reminds me of a few other characters one in in Mark chapter 8 that the Lord Jesus Christ had to he spit which one was this let me see if I have it here he spit on his eyes and put his hands on him and he said asked if he sees he says I see men as trees walking you remember that weird that part there and then he said he'd put his hands on him again and then he could see clearly what in the world some kind of blindness or something on his eyes that it takes the spittle of the creator to remove and there's another case in John chapter 9 there's a man that's born blind and they ask you know who did sin this man or his parents that he was born blind just a stupid stupid question and Jesus Christ spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the eyes of the blind and he said go wash in the pool of salome and he went washed and came seeing

[33:56] I don't I don't know what to make of this but this is individual darkness when these are cases was there something going on that God has got to remove and he's not just doing it with the spoken word but rather something it takes Jesus Christ to wash something away with his spittle or it takes the hands of this man to call these scales to fall off and furthermore where we started there was a mist and a darkness which fell on him in Genesis chapter 19 the men of Sodom show up beating on Lot's door why because they want to get to know the angels those men and it says that the angels smote them with darkness and they couldn't find the door later on in 2nd Kings chapter 6 Elisha is surrounded by enemies and his servant is afraid and he says Lord open his eyes and then he sees his spiritually sees that the Lord has horses and chariots of fire surrounding them and and then he says that that he spoke or he smote those men the enemies with blindness and led them away to Samaria and then he opened their eyes there's some weird stuff about this that there's pictures and types throughout all of it but nevertheless there's something individual happening where God is blinding with something some mist some darkness but it's a judgment or a plague or a sign a working of God now let's move to Acts 26 you should be in Acts already look at chapter 26 and I want to give you the fourth category of darkness this morning and that is spiritual darkness spiritual I want to give you a couple passages here that we'll turn to they're very close together so look at Acts 26 and verse 18 this is Paul's Paul's commission of God to go preach the gospel and in doing so verse 18 the reason the the effect of his preaching was to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins so man is in darkness under the power of Satan without forgiveness of sins and the gospel of Jesus

[36:20] Christ can can pierce through that darkness I'll show you why look at second Corinthians chapter four second Corinthians to your right a few books second Corinthians chapter four and here's some people that are blinded that need to be enlightened by not by a bright light in the heavens but rather by a gospel by a message a a message of truth has got to enter pierce through darkness the Bible says the entrance of thy word giveth light it giveth understanding to the simple to them that sat in darkness all right verse number three second Corinthians four verse three but if our gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost in whom the God of this world we just read about him the power of Satan they're in darkness 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 the light needs to pierce through the darkness that's covering their minds verse five says for we preach not ourselves but

[37:42] 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 this darkness can be pierced it can be divided just like Genesis chapter one by the the light as it says of the glorious gospel of Christ this is spiritual darkness we're looking at one more passage just to your right a few more pages is Ephesians chapter four please find that Ephesians chapter four not everybody has that light that glorious gospel of Christ light they're in darkness they're blinded by the God of this world it's spiritual darkness now Ephesians chapter four and verse number 17 says this I say therefore and testify in the Lord that she henceforth walk not as other

[38:51] Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind having the understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart so the gospel hasn't gotten through the blindness or gotten through the darkness the power of Satan the blindness he puts on them how does he do that he puts lies on them we saw this last week he'll lie to you that if you'll be a good person God will accept you if you don't kill anybody you're okay you're basically good lie you're not basically good the Pope said this recently he said man is basically good he said it in some big old baloney lie fest that he's been doing all his life man is not basically good the Bible tells us completely different from that your heart is deceitful and desperately wicked so moving on from that though there's spiritual darkness and that darkness needs the gospel of Jesus Christ that he died for your sin your sins not good person he didn't die for good people he didn't come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance and as the Bible says all have sinned so where do we fall we're all sinners we're all in the in a mess we're all in darkness we're all deceived and under the power of Satan and we need to be turned unto the unto God and I'm gonna see that in a second here oh you know what you're really close flip over to Colossians chapter 1 you're really close so just a few more pages to the right Colossians chapter 1 there's spiritual darkness this is a state of being dead in your trespasses and sins and as we read having your understanding darkened being blinded by the God of this world hoping thinking I'm good enough I've done enough I go to church I give a few bucks you know God's happy you know I'm not wicked like those people and I'm not not seeing that you are on your way to hell and in front of a holy God you're filthy completely filthy in front of a holy God and only the blood of Jesus Christ can wash that away and can offer you righteousness in its place can justify you spiritually blind spiritually dead and in spiritual darkness and in spiritual darkness and this is a judgment of God why because it's the result of your sin the wages of sin is death and you're dead in your trespasses and sins the Bible says that death passed upon all men for that all have sinned dark spiritually it's I like to think of it as the shadow of death that covers over you the Bible says that death reigns over sinners its shadow is the darkness that blocks the light from coming in unto you just like that Egyptian army had that darkness blocking the light and a lost man a man in spiritual darkness has sinned and he's spiritually dead in his sins and he's blinded by some lies there's ignorance in him he's not aware of the truth Paul describes in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 that the Jews read the Old Testament with a veil over their heart the veil is not allowing the truth that's in that Old Testament of Jesus Christ to shine unto them it's not showing them that he's the land the perfect Passover lamb of God

[42:52] it's not showing the blood being applied on Calvary as much like the blood being applied back in the Passover time it's they're blind to it all the veils on their heart and the Bible says in that passage of 2nd Corinthians 3 that they're blinded and that blindness or the veil rather is done away in Christ and the darkness is gone in Christ and the eyes are open now you're in Colossians look at chapter 1 in verse 13 I'll back up to verse 12 giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son in whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins thank God Almighty that you're not if you've been quickened and made alive in Christ by the gospel of Jesus Christ realized your sin against him and what Jesus Christ did on the cross to atone for it if you've received that gift of eternal life offered to you by Jesus Christ this thought should be just screaming at you that he delivered you from the power of darkness do you not know how many people are in the clutches of the power of darkness today and blinded have no clue that their good life is worthless before God they're gonna burn in hell depart from me they're gonna get cast into guess what outer darkness we'll get to that we're right there but by the mercy of God by the grace of God by faith in Jesus Christ you can be delivered but from the power of darkness and translate the spiritual darkness is gone by the grace of God but there's a lot that are still in it it's a real thing it's a judgment for their sin for your sin spiritual darkness that only the gospel of Jesus Christ can shine in and dispel now there's one more and this kind of this just falls right in line is the final darkness as I'm gonna call it eternal darkness we started with global darkness a judgment upon a situation where Lucifer was God of this world and was lifted up in pride and said I'm gonna set my throne

[45:31] I'm gonna be like the most high I'm gonna ascend and God did some kind of judgment there upon that thing to where the earth was without form and darkness he placed he created a darkness that never before existed and separated and put it upon the face of the deep then we saw some local darknesses where it has to do with a thick cloud and darkness which may be felt and then we see a individual darkness a little bit there and we saw something interesting about a mist and a darkness and then there's spiritual darkness which we understand from on this side of it it's easy to see but on that side it doesn't seem dark at all seems like you're doing the best you can do but blind and then the fifth one and finally eternal darkness in the book of Matthew Jesus Christ warned it's repeatedly through the book that somebody was gonna get cast into outer darkness in chapter 80 refers to these the children of the kingdom these Jews that would not exercise faith he talks about many coming from the east and west and sitting down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom these are Gentiles are gonna get in but the children of the kingdom are gonna be cast into outer darkness the unprofitable servant is cast into outer darkness where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth

[46:51] Jude why don't you turn there we'll go to the back of your Bible here look at Jude go all the way near the back just before Revelation Jude and we want verse verse 13 there's this passage about certain men that have crept in unawares and they're turning the grace of our God into the city they're denying the Lord God and the Lord Jesus Christ and they're they're filthy dreamers and by verse 13 it says raging waves of the sea foaming out their own shame wandering stars notice now to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever the blackness of darkness forever it's a judgment it's eternal flip back to your left just a couple pages till you find

[47:56] Peter and 2nd Peter chapter 2 I know it's a lot of turning we're almost finished 2nd Peter chapter 2 and look what he says about some false teachers that come on the scene and he calls them cursed children and in verse number 17 watch the wording these are wells without water clouds that are carried with a tempest to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever look at those words the mist of darkness the blackness of darkness forever it's reserved there's a created darkness of God a judgment that is being held and placed and reserved for certain people it's very interesting it's a place of damnation it's a place of God's final judgment and forever judgment against all sin and all sinners it's a place where the beast and the dragon and the false prophet are going to be tormented forever and ever it's a place where all the false prophets that Jesus warned of in the gospel of Matthew that said

[49:24] Lord Lord and he says depart from me ye workers of iniquity it's a place where those false teachers Peter mentions are going to be confined for eternity it's a place for the rebellious it's a place for every nation that forgets God it's a place for those who did not like to retain God in their knowledge and he gave themselves up over to filthiness it's a place for all of the souls that have chosen to reject the Lord Jesus Christ as their sacrifice for their sins it's eternal darkness he's putting away the darkness that he created as a judgment and what I think I'm going to give you a little more now I think he's putting it outside of the new heavens and new earth flip over to Revelation 21 there's a created firmament and the waters above and he divided the waters for the waters in Genesis 1 and in that he hung the sun moon star the whole thing's going on but he says that he's going to do away with all of that and I'll start actually back in the chapter 20 of

[50:51] Revelation I mentioned this earlier verse I'll start in verse 10 the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and false prophet are notice the words a lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever and I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth from whose face the earth and heaven fled away and there was found no place for them and so well that's gone and by verse 14 death and hell are cast into the lake of fire and then verse chapter 21 verse 1 a new heaven and new earth for the first heaven Genesis 1 and the first earth Genesis 1 were passed away and there was no more sea and so there's that new creation a recreation

[51:53] I spoke of earlier but no deep no sea no water and no darkness upon the face of it and you might notice in this recreation there's no and the earth was without form and void that's not happened because that was a judgment amen people don't get that sometimes and they argue back in Genesis well why don't we run to Revelation 21 and see if God does it no all of that's missing from this account of a new heavens and new earth for what it's worth but there is a lake of fire and now look at verse number 8 21 8 but the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death so that's a literal real place where the souls of all these people are confined and tormented this is God's doing and he's righteous now there's a new heaven and new earth and there's no more sea and the first heaven and first earth are gone but then there's this lake of fire where is it people always think or at least the only thing I've ever heard and understood was oh it's at the bottom of this universe but I don't think so anymore because all that's done away it fled away it's gone so where is it alright so there's that group of people look at chapter 22 now revelation 22 and notice verse 15 you'll see some of the same people it says 22 15 for without are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers and idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie like ye are of your father the devil and he was a murderer from the beginning he was a liar and the father of remember that who speaketh a lie speaks of him but where's this at it says in verse 15 without out outside like outer darkness that Christ warned about somebody being cast into outer darkness it's my opinion and I don't quite have it figured out

[54:07] I can't say any more than I have said this morning that when God recreates the new heaven and new earth and he's going to dwell with them you can read that in chapter 21 and 2 and there's no night there and there's no need for the sun God is the light of it the Lamb of God is the light of it there's no temple it's the way God would have had it from the beginning and there was a rebellion by Lucifer and that thing got squashed and judged and he created Adam and he created man a little lower than the angels that second time around and he created him of the dust of the ground this time the angels are spirits the angels are and they have spiritual beings they could come and go and do differently and the original thing was different it was set up quite differently but this time God creates Adam of the dust of the ground and he confines him to this ball this earth he now needs water he needs oxygen and if he can even bottle it up and put it in a tank and collect fuel and refine and rocket himself up outside out of this initial atmosphere he can't go that far and even if he can get off of it he still needs all of those things food and water and he needs the oxygen and the air and he's got to come back down to get it

[55:29] God fixed it so that man's not getting off of here he's not ascending like Lucifer attempted to do and so that was his second time around with Adam Eve and we're still part of it but the third thing that we're reading back here I believe the new heavens and new earth is going to be back to the light the way he started it with Lucifer before that rebellion but he's going to put the souls and the sinners and the lake of fire outside of that creation now I give you one last reference I know we've gone long this may not help you this may be too wild for you look back at Isaiah chapter 34 last reference now in kind of concluding here this is some tangible thing that we're reading in Exodus chapter 10 with the darkness upon the land of Egypt and I know that that was almost just a springboard to really cover a deeper topic of darkness but it's something tangible about the wording thick clouds thick darkness darkness a mist and darkness a a the mist of darkness forever a darkness which may be felt there's something physical or tangible about this now

[56:48] Isaiah 34 we are not looking at eternity anymore I'm like so come back to earth from Revelation 21 this is after Christ comes comes down to earth in his second coming and establishes his kingdom and in that kingdom there is some major destruction against the nations and sinners and he even he even kindles a fire on this planet matter of fact I'll show you that real quickly it's in chapter 30 look at chapter 30 and you can see it in verse 27 and 28 in 20 and 30 this devouring fire but the main verse is verse 33 it says Tophet is ordained of old yea for the king it is prepared he hath made it deep and large the pile thereof is fire and much wood the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it and what the Lord does and you can go through Isaiah and see a chain of references that

[57:49] God is going to kindle a fire on that in the region where he sits on the throne as king over all the world he's going to kindle a fire and there's going to be men tossed into that fire where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched and there's going to be spiritual beings and beasts that are also confined to that fire that's mentioned here in Isaiah 34 I know this is wild stuff I know I hear myself saying these words I know maybe this might be much for a lot of you but in Isaiah 34 you've got a reference to unicorns in verse 7 and bullets with the bulls and there's some I don't know if you remember this or not but in Psalm 22 and I can't think of the other reference I want there that describes when Christ is on the cross saying my God my God why is there bulls of Bashan that are in his presence and they're gaping upon him there's something that can't even be seen by men spirits and ungodliness uncleanness attacking him while he's on that cross and anyway what I want is verse number 8 8 through 10 verse 8 says when Jesus

[59:09] Christ comes back he's going to turn a portion of that land into fire verse 8 says for it is the day of the Lord's vengeance and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion and the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch the streams of what of water that flow in that land he's going to turn that water into pitch and the dust thereof into brimstone and the land thereof shall become burning pitch it shall not be quenched night or day sounds like something we read about the lake of fire the smoke thereof shall go up forever from generation to generation it shall lie waste none shall pass through it forever and ever and then he gets to some spiritual beasts that are stuck there the cormorant the bittern the owl these are not animals there's wild beasts of the desert in verse 14 there's the satyr that's crying and the screech owl and these are some spiritual things that I don't profess to get but nevertheless there's a fire that's burning on earth when Christ comes back and establishes his kingdom and because that fire is burning look at chapter 33 verse 14 and understand how mankind is going to relate to this when he can see it with his eyes 33 14 the sinners in Zion are afraid you better believe they are afraid fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who among us shall dwell with everlasting who's going to get tossed into that next you better keep your mouth clean and your hands clean and undefiled and obey the king or you'll get tossed in and you can see that in Isaiah 66 the very end of this book now the last thought here is I believe that what Jesus

[61:01] Christ establishes on this planet during his kingdom is a picture of eternity he's going to kindle a fire in the land the streams that flow down and pool up into a lake are actually going to be turned to pitch and they're going to be lit on fire and it's going to be a lake of fire on the planet for the time being and of course we know in the future all that's going to be fled away and gone and put away but there's a lake of fire in eternity that we went to category 5 eternal darkness I found it interesting that he turns water into pitch something that's black something that's dark and that burns and I believe the picture there is God turning what was before thick clouds and a mist of darkness that he used elsewhere for his judgments but now it's going to be turned into a black pitch that swallows up the souls and engulfs and submerges them forever and ever and ever and in that sense they'll be out of sight

[62:06] I believe they'll be outside of the new heavens and new earth and not necessarily even something that we could get to or see and that's just my thoughts on that it's kind of wild I do hear myself I know and it's a lot it's pretty heavy stuff we're closing with but if you can take something away about darkness then be very warned about the spiritual darkness that souls are in don't get too carried away with the eternal darkness or understanding what that is or where that is I just gave you what I could give you you take the thought that that's real that the souls of your grandparents or your mother or your father or your sister or your brother that rejects Jesus Christ is going to be confined to that damnation forever and ever they'll be tormented righteously so because they sinned against the holy God as did you they need the same sacrifice you got they need the same blood they need the same redemption so God can open their eyes and get them out of that darkness and maybe take that to heart today this is so so very real and this earth like we know this life's but a vapor it's going to be gone

[63:17] God's going to put this thing down and done with but eternity we can't compare the two so just just weighing and trying to decide what is more important it's the souls of men it's the eternal souls that could be eternally damned in outer darkness in a lake of fire now in Exodus we read these people were in darkness that may be felt and they're going to feel this blackness and darkness and mist of darkness and it's going to be turned into pitch and a burning that they'll never get out of God help us to fear the Lord and to have the concern about souls that he has about souls and I know this was a little bit over the top for a normal Sunday morning and a little long but if anything that Bible's right that Bible has more in it than you realize don't just read through it as if it's just blah blah blah blah no big deal God has put it all in there and he tells you to study to show yourself approved and when you study it it starts to shine it starts to let light pierce through darkness and uncover your eyes and you start to get the cobwebs of worldliness out of your mind and junk that you've heard and things that just make sense to you start to get clear because the light of God comes through so may that be what happens with us and all that we do and I'm going to just shut her down right there and conclude went long enough happy father's day happy father's day you bunch of dark no so alright

[64:56] I hope that's something maybe you can chew on maybe you can study on your own and maybe there's more there that I haven't uncovered I wouldn't doubt that at all because I'm definitely not the authority on this stuff it's over my head but those five categories write them down listen to it again if you need to or get the scriptures and study it out if it's something that intrigues you to try to learn more truth so let's be dismissed with that and let's go our way if you want to feel free to stop by and see Mark out there and he'll hook you up and praise the Lord father thank you for this morning and God I realize the material and the message this morning how different it came out how it was and Lord it's up to you to really take it and to use it and to pierce through things in our minds and our hearts and so Lord I pray that we fall in love with your word take an interest in this truth whether or not we have a clear understanding or a better understanding of these things I don't know fully but Lord I believe every word in that book and I believe the answers are in that book and God I pray that we could take something from this more than just intellectual knowledge but

[66:03] Lord a burden and a consideration for those that are lost that are in our lives and those that we pass and those that we see realizing that you're not willing that any should perish and understanding your grace is sufficient and it can cover their sins and that the multitude of sins can be forgiven and so Lord help us to be faithful and help us to be courageous and to use our time wisely to minister to others and to be a pleasure to you thank you for Bible Baptist Church thank you for individuals that came this morning thank you for your word going forth now please bless it and use it in our lives we ask in Jesus name amen amen you are dismissed