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So as you guys are turning to John chapter 8, and by the way, there's some Bibles under the chairs if you need one, and also the words will be on the screen above me. Have you guys ever been like in a really, really physically dark place? Like, have you ever been in a situation where you you just like it was dark? Um I remember when I was in my teenage years, uh, my grandmother lives in Carlsbad, New Mexico, or she lived in Carlsbad, New Mexico, and we went to the Carlsbad Cavern. Has anybody been there? Okay. So uh we made this trip, and everybody had been talking about how cool it was. And so we get there, we check in, and they paid for us to have like the little uh devices that tell you things as you go on this little tour down, and as you're you're descending into this cavern, and they of course have these little lights that are there, and then you have your own little light. Um, and at some point in the tour, I don't remember exactly how it worked, but I remember them saying, hey, listen, uh, in just a second, we're gonna turn out all the lights, and we're gonna let you feel what it's like in the cavern. And I remember them doing that, and immediately it was like, whoa, like this is the darkest I've ever seen it, uh, or didn't see because I couldn't see anything. And you know what they want to talk about, you can't see your hand in front of your face. I mean, it you couldn't see anything, it was pitch black. And it was really kind of creepy, like weird, like what in the world would it be like to live in total darkness? And I just remember that moment, it stuck with me and it will for the rest of my life because it was just so dark and you could see nothing. And I don't remember how long they even left the lights off, but it felt like an eternity. It felt like, come on, somebody, you gotta turn the light back on. You know, it's like, come on, hit the light switch. Um, but it's reminded me that when the Bible talks about spiritual life and it talks about the way that we as humans are, it gives this illustration, it gives this insight that people, and Becca mentioned this earlier, if you were here, uh when we're seeing is when we are apart from God, uh when we are in uh this world, the system of thinking and living and processing life the way the world does, uh, the Bible says we're in darkness. It says that we're in this darkness that we can't see properly. We can't see what's going on. Uh, we're kind of groping around in the darkness, trying to figure things out. Now, I would tell you that most people don't feel like they're in darkness. I mean, most people don't feel like um I'm in a dark place, but when they get really honest, they get still and they get quiet, which is probably why a lot of our people, uh a lot of people on the planet don't like to get still and like don't like to get quiet. Because then you like kind of have to confront the real you. And when you aren't, um when you don't have truth, when you don't have hope, uh, when you don't have like security in something greater than you, you can feel like this sense of I'm in darkness. Like I don't really know what's going on. I don't know which end is up. I don't know what I should do, shouldn't do. I don't really know why I'm even here. That's called spiritual darkness. But the Bible also says that, as we know uh in multiple places, that Jesus is the light. He comes to be the light. In fact, our passage today, Jesus even says those very words, I am the light of the world. But before we get to his statement about that, I want us to read from John chapter 8, and we'll begin in verse 2. And let me remind you that as we're in this series uh teaching through the book of John and in a section where Jesus is giving these I am statements, um, these are very definitive, very clear uh statements straight from Jesus saying, This is who I am. If you want to know who I am, here's who I am. And he's already said, I am the bread of life. He said, I am the bread from heaven, and if you uh consume me, if you feast on me, uh you will experience life. Okay? And so he's already made that comment, and we talked through some of the oddity of that. Uh, but and I encourage you, if you weren't here, you can go back and listen to some of that. But now he's saying something different, and it's not inconsistent with what he said about being bread of life. He's just saying, he's now saying, I am the light of the world. And so uh verse 2, chapter 8, says this. At dawn, he, this is Jesus, went to the temple complex again, and all the people were coming to him. He sat down and began to teach them. Now, just a note, uh, this is what Jesus would do. He would go to the temple to teach, and he knew it was safe there because there were crowds of people, there were a lot of eyes, and if these religious leaders, who you're gonna hear about in a second, if they came in and tried to get him and tried to arrest him on the spot, uh, it would probably create a riot, and so that was not something that they wanted to do because then the Romans were gonna be hacked off and they were gonna hold the leaders accountable. So Jesus knew it was safe to go into the temple and to teach there in a public environment, but also notice that there's a lot of people coming to listen to him because they had heard how incredible he was as a teacher. So they're there, they're listening to him. And it says he sat down and began to teach them. Then the scribes and the Pharisees, this is the religious uh leadership, the pious uh leaders that we consistently see throughout the gospels. It says, uh the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, making her stand in the center. Teacher, they said to him, this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery. In the law of Moses, he commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say? They asked this, and we get to a little insight, they asked this to trap him in order that they might have evidence to accuse him. And Jesus stooped down and starts writing on the ground with his finger. And when they persisted in questioning him, he stood up and said to them, The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her. Then he stooped down again and he continued writing on the ground. When they heard this, they left one by one, starting with the older men. Only he was left with the woman in the center. And when Jesus stood up, he said to her, Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? No one, she answered. Neither do I condemn you, said Jesus. Go and from now on, do not sin anymore. Now, um, this is a powerful story, and in fact, it's a very popular story because it gives us a picture of Jesus. Uh because I don't want you to be distracted, if you have a study Bible or any kind of Bible with notes in it, I want to make sure you understand something important here, and that is that this particular story was not in the original manuscripts of John. Okay, so so that you don't get sidetracked and this week go, wait, wait, wait, wait. It says here this wasn't even in the original manuscript. What's the deal? Um, I don't want to bore you with details, I don't want to like get all bogged down in this, but this was actually not in the original manuscripts, and I think if you look uh and you have any kind of scholarship at all, you would have to say this was not a part of the original book of John. And some tried to insert this passage later, this story, uh, into the book of Luke and in another place in John. But for uh whatever reason, uh, and I trust in God's sovereignty and the way, because I hope you guys know this, this book is a miracle. It's a miracle uh that God inspired men, 40-ish men, uh, to write these words down onto these to the to this recorded, what we call the canon of the scripture we now have, uh, and to get it to us is it's a miraculous thing. And and what's amazing about this uh this book again is that it doesn't ultimately, even though people, some people will argue this point, it doesn't ultimately contradict itself in uh the story of who God is and what he's done to redeem mankind. Okay, but this this passage of scripture was not in the original manuscripts, it was added later, and they believe, I believe, that God sovereignly preserved this section of the text and that it's in here because we can learn from it, we can glean from it. And it definitely does not contradict who Jesus was and how he ministered to people. In fact, it actually helps us understand some of what we see, even in the Old Testament, about the prophecies on who Jesus was going to be. For example, Isaiah chapter 42, verse 3. I think it's on the screen above me here, but it says this. Maybe it kind of sounds odd, but I'll explain in a second. He will not break a bruised reed, and he will not put out a smoldering wick, he will faithfully bring justice. Specifically talking about Jesus 400 years before he is even on the scene, saying that when he comes, he will not break a bruised reed, he will not put out a smoldering wick, he will faithfully bring justice. What is this telling us? This is telling us that Jesus is going to be this incredibly gracious and compassionate Messiah who's unafraid to speak truth and bring about justice. You know, early in John, we read the first 18 verses, which is called the prologue. It says that he is full of grace and truth. There is not a human being on this planet who is full of grace and truth. We struggle. We are either gracious or truthful most of the time, right? We struggle. And hopefully, as Christians, as we grow, we learn how to be both. We learn how to be gracious and compassionate and kind and merciful, and at the same time, we we don't hesitate to speak the truth because we are secure in Christ and we believe that He is true, we believe that the Word is true, and so we don't have to shy away from that. Jesus embodies this perfectly. And in fact, in this scene, in this story, we see exactly that. We see Jesus being incredibly gracious, incredibly kind, incredibly generous, incredibly compassionate, and yet without compromise, speaking exactly what needs to be said into a very difficult situation, very difficult, very messy situation. I would argue that every single one of us in this room craved both of those things. We crave it. We want to be told the truth, even if it hurts and stings a little, because we know we need to hear it, but we also want to be shown grace because we know we're all messed up and we're struggling. You know, we don't believe the truth all the time, and we know that when we fail, our tendency in the human heart is to be feeling full of shame and guilt and fear, anxiety. We need grace. We need grace, we need compassion. I mean, we want our spouse to show us that, don't we? Married people in the room? We want our friends to show us that. We want our children even to show us that. Well, here's the truth, here's the deal. Jesus does show us that perfectly. He shows us grace and he shows us truth. He shows us kindness and compassion, and he also shows us what it looks like to pursue justice and righteousness and holiness. That's what the scripture would tell us. Now, what do we learn from this woman caught in adultery in the story here? Well, there's a number of things that we learn, but I want us to just kind of look at the story, pick it apart a little bit again before we get back to this point that Jesus is the light of the world. Because I think these things fit together. And even though this wasn't originally a section of text in this original manuscript, I think it's kind of peculiar and curious how God put this in this section followed by this I am the light of the world statement. Um, these religious leaders are growing in frustration with Jesus. We already know that. If you've been walking along through this journey of John, you know that more and more these religious leaders are getting ticked off. And in fact, last week they even sent the police, the temple police, to go and arrest Jesus. It didn't work out for them because the temple police were like, whoa, he's such a good teacher. I don't want to mess with him. Uh and so we kind of joked about the fact that even though they sent these guys to arrest them, they couldn't do it because they were just like in awe of him. But they are increasingly ticked off that he is a threat to their position, he's a threat to their authority, and they really feel like we got to do away with this guy or he's going to ruin us. So, in this story, here's Jesus teaching, crowds are surrounding him, he's popular, they like to listen to him, and what happens? These guys set a trap, or at least they think they're gonna set a trap. And this isn't the only time that that's ever happened. Uh, I mean, there's a story of a one of the teachers of the law coming and saying, Hey, Jesus, uh, what's the greatest commandment? To see if he'll say something, you know, they could they could pin him on. Uh, there's another place where they come and they bring a coin and it's got Caesar's picture on it, and they say, Well, should we pay taxes or should we not pay taxes? And they know it's going to either hack off the Jews or the Romans. Similar situation. Here he is, he's in the temple, and they're thinking if they can get him to say something in front of everybody that will either uh incite the Romans or frustrate the Jews, that then they can like seize him and there'll be some like just cause. And so what they do is they set up this trap and they throw this woman out in the middle of them, and they say, Look at this woman, she was caught in adultery. Now, what would have happened, and they even say this, is because in the Mosaic law, if you haven't read the Old Testament, um, I encourage you to read the Bible, but you gotta know that in the Old Testament uh there are laws that were given to Moses for his people to make them distinct. And one of the, and those laws really didn't have much wiggle room. One of the laws said that if you commit adultery, you get stoned. You're dead. The people, they will convict you, they will stone you, and it's game over. That's the way it works. And so that's what they said. Jesus, she committed adultery, we caught her, and she deserves death. We also know that the Romans, in their day, if you committed adultery, you at least got a trial. Now the Romans were pretty bad dudes, and they were very oppressive, especially later on. We find that they persecuted Christians, but they did have a uh a system set up for trials and and like actually making sure people uh had a fair shot to defend themselves, to make sure there were truly witnesses to this. And so if if he said, of course, you know, uh you should condemn her and follow the law of Moses, then the Romans would be like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, you can't do that. There's a system in place, the justice of uh, you know, she gets a fair trial. So it was gonna create problems. Do you see the trap? It was gonna create tension, it's gonna create issues on both sides of the aisle for Jesus. But here's the thing Jesus does what he always does because he's incredibly wise, incredibly insightful, and then rather than addressing the stone, in fact, he doesn't say anything about the stones and throwing the stones, he actually starts to pick apart their case in a way that only Jesus can. And he does it with kindness and he does it with truth, truthfulness. Um he says, in essence, to summarize, you're not qualified to make this assessment. You're not qualified to condemn this woman. You're like, well, what do you mean? Well, first off, he bends down and he starts to write in the dirt. I don't know why that's recorded, okay? Um, it's kind of an odd thing. Anybody who says, you know, that the that the Bible was written like uh some sort of, you know, just story, I mean, like, why are these random things in there? Like he bends down and writes in the dirt. I I don't know, and we don't know what he wrote either. Clearly, the the person who wrote it didn't find that it was important for us to know. Uh we speculate on this. Some of you guys might have been here roughly a year ago. We talked about uh this particular story. And you gotta wonder, like, okay, was Jesus in the dirt, like writing out their sins, listing off the sins of these guys who were accusing them? I don't know. I think that'd be kind of funny. Um, since I'm not them, right? If it were me, then I wouldn't want them writing my sins in the dirt. But but apparently he's been down, he's writing these sins in the dirt and um uh writing something in the dirt. He may have just been like, you know, gathering his thoughts, just kind of talking to the father. Okay, God, the father, what are we gonna do here? How am I gonna help help these guys? I don't know. We don't know. But ultimately, the writing in the dirt doesn't seem to do anything initially. And so the guys start to press in even more, and they are like, what are we gonna do with this woman? I mean, she's she's sinned, she's an adulterous woman, she has sexually failed, and she deserves punishment of death. So Jesus, and then he says something that probably if you've been in church very long, you've heard, right? Let him without sin cast the first stone. They get the point as he continues to ride in the dirt, maybe he starts to ramp up the sins. They get the point, and the older men start to leave first. The older men are like, yeah, that's a good point. We gotta go. Okay. The younger men are like, let's go still, right? There's just like, you know, sometimes young people, just a lot of passion, no, no truth, right? So it's just, but they're like, we're still at this. But bottom line is that eventually they're all gone, and it's just Jesus, and it's just this woman. Which is a beautiful thought. Everybody else leaves, but it's just Jesus right here with this woman. And Jesus, I mean, he loves this woman. We know that. He loves this woman caught in adultery. And he asks something to her. He he doesn't talk about stones, he doesn't talk about, you know, what she does, what she's done. He just says, What? Uh, where's your accusers? I mean, this is are you where'd everybody go? And he says, I don't condemn you. So go. And not only that, he says, go and sin no more. It's a beautiful picture, again, of the way that this plays out in our lives over and over and over and over again. Because if you're a human being, you are dealing with flesh. And flesh is messy, flesh is sinful and rebellious, flesh, and when I say flesh, I'm not talking about like your muscle and your tissue. I'm talking about the parts of us that reject God, reject his rule, his reign, and even his goodness and his grace. Our flesh, if we aren't careful, will direct us and lead us, and guess what? It will lead us into darkness. That's where the flesh loves to live, is in the darkness. But the spirit leads us to life and to light. And in fact, I want to finish reading this passage and then come back and make some observations based on this because Jesus in this story is showing us how he is the light of the world. And how that that light is a good thing, even though at times it might be painful. So John chapter 8, let's go back and read verse 12 now. Here's what it says. Then Jesus spoke to them again. I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life. So the Pharisees said to him, You are testifying about yourself. Your testimony is not valid. What are the Pharisees still trying to do? They're still trying to undermine his authority. They're still trying to reason away why they shouldn't submit themselves to Jesus, why they shouldn't believe him, and how he just needs to get lost. But it says there, even I testify about myself, or even if I testify about myself, my testimony is valid because I know where I came from and where I'm going. But you don't know where I came from or come from or where I'm going. You judge by human standards, I judge by no one. Did you catch that phrase? God has a different perspective on how he sees the world and how he sees us. He judges not by human standards, which sounds really familiar to a passage in 1 Samuel 16 where the prophet Samuel, as he's looking to anoint a new king, says, Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. He sees what's going on below the surface. I think that, again, as part of the light of the world, Jesus sees below the surface. And if I do judge, my judgment is true, because I'm not alone, but I and the Father who sent me judge together. Even in your law it is written that the witnesses of two men is valid. I am the one who testifies about myself, and the Father who sent me testifies about me. So if we, again, well, verse 19, then they asked him, Where is your father? You neither, you know neither me nor my father, Jesus answered. If you knew me, you would also know my father, because to know Jesus is to know God. He spoke these words by the treasury while teaching in the temple complex, but no one sees him because his hour had not come. You're gonna see that several times as well. His hour had not come. Just note on that that these religious leaders thought they were in control, but guess who's in control? God. The timeline that Jesus is on is not their timeline, it's on his timeline, it's on God's timeline. And not only that, just a note here where he is standing when he says he's the light of the world, I think these things are kind of interesting. Is that he's standing in a place near where the people would bring their offerings. Temple treasury place, and there were these little slots they would put their offering in, these boxes, and there were these two massive chandeliers, and they would be lit up in the evening time to light through the night. And many people believed that when Jesus said he was the light of the world, because he was so good at connecting context and things going on around them to the truth that he was trying to teach, is that maybe, just maybe, while those lamps were either being lit or were already burning, he says, I am the light of the world. Just as with last week when he said, I am, you can have the springs of living water as the pitcher was being poured out nearby in the Feast of Tabernacles. So what we see in this is that Jesus is the light of the world. And the question is, is what does that mean? Well, there's a lot of arguments and lots of thoughts, and but you always go to Scripture to interpret Scripture, right? We always go to Scripture, the Bible, to interpret what the Bible's saying. And I want to take you to John chapter 1. In the very beginning, which I mentioned earlier about the prologue, this is what it says. Verse 4. Life was in him. This is Jesus, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, yet the darkness did not overcome it. And then it talks a little bit about John there, but it comes on back and says in verse 8 that John was not the light, he was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. The true light who gives light to everyone was coming into the world. Now, what I'm saying to you is that if there is any hope for humanity to actually see the world the way God intends it to be seen, if there's any hope for spiritual enlightenment, if there's any hope for redemption and salvation, if there's any hope that we would not grope around and live in darkness, fumbling our way through this crazy chaos that we call planet Earth, it's in Jesus. He's the only light. He is the only light. He is the only one who can reveal the truth of what's really going on. He is the only one who can enlighten our hearts to know and discern and to see what is truth and what is lie, what is death and what is life. Do you understand what I'm saying? You see, Jesus alone is the light. You remove Jesus, there is no light. One of the most beautiful things that I think about in Scripture is it says in Revelation, that's the last book of the Bible, it says that in heaven there is no need for lights because why? Because Jesus, his presence is the light. I love that imagery. That literally who he is and his glory lights up everything. He is the complete antonym of darkness. Jesus is the light of the world. Now, here's the thing, and this is where we get a little bit scared and a little bit fearful, and that is this. The light exposes us, and the light also reveals the truth, the pathway to freedom. Now, we go back to the story of this woman caught in adultery. Jesus is not deceived, and he is not tricked, and he is not even confused by what these guys are trying to do because ultimately he sees the motive of the heart. He knows what these religious leaders are doing. He knows what's going on in their lives. He understands what they're trying to do and how they're trying to trip him up, and he knows that they don't want to surrender and to submit themselves to him. He knows. He is not confused. He is not puzzled. He is not baffled. He knows completely. He sees right through it. And here's the truth today. Every one of us in this room needs to come to grips with the reality that God knows our hearts. He knows the thoughts that are going through our head. He knows the things we really love. He knows what really motivates us, what really drives us. He knows just how messed up Nick Shock is. He knows how many times I do the right things for terrible reasons. Ultimately for my own glory. He knows how we lust after things. He knows and he sees the impurity that's there as we wrestle through our flesh. He knows, he's aware. In fact, Hebrews chapter 4, it's a passage I come to fairly often. And it's something that we as believers need to be aware of. That it says in Hebrews chapter 4 that nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. It's kind of like the Adam and Eve story when they throw on fig leaves. And then they go run and hide behind a bush and act like there's no way God sees them. Foolishness. He's God. He knows everything. He sees everything. We're trained from the time we're very young to hide. And our flesh naturally runs and hides in the darkness. But you cannot because the light exposes. The light exposes the darkness, it knows, and it reveals that reality of what's going on in our hearts. What I love about Hebrews, though, here's the beauty is if that were the end of the story, life would be incredibly depressing. But the light doesn't just expose our issues and our messed upness. Is that a word? It is now. It reveals the path to life. In fact, Hebrews 4 goes on to say, in that passage, it's beautiful, that we have a great high priest. His name's Jesus. And that he was tempted in every way but was without sin. And that now, for those of us who are in Christ Jesus, those who have actually received his salvation, those of us who've actually put our trust and our hope in him, not in our own goodness, we're not running from him in rebellion. But those who've actually put our trust in him, even with our imperfections, it says we can approach his throne of grace with confidence. Like we don't just kind of crawl up and grovel to it. It says literally we can come into the presence of God because we're under the blood of Jesus. And so we're no longer condemned. We have freedom to come to Jesus and say, Help me, Jesus. When I look at this story, I'm reminded of a profound truth, and that is this. When we are prideful and we are arrogant and we are unaware of our sin, or we are aware of our sin and we are just living in it and walking in it and trying to obscure it, trying to put a facade on, guess what? The Bible says that the sins we won't name, Jesus will. The Bible says that the things that we aren't willing to acknowledge, he already knows and he'll call it out. In fact, we're even reminded that God resists the proud. And if we're God's child, if we're actually a Christian and a follower of Jesus, whatever you want to use that terminology, but you've surrendered to him, he can't let us walk in deception. So he's going to bring suffering or pain or hardship or what we call discipline into our lives so that we can be corrected and so that we can walk in freedom. Did you notice that even while he compassionately ministers to this adulterous woman, at the very end, he doesn't say, okay, go back to the way you were living. What does he say? Go and sin no more. You see, the light reveals the path to freedom and to joy and to hope, to peace. Because while Jesus will call out the sin that maybe we won't even acknowledge, he will also forgive those who call their sin out to him. Isn't that good? Like, isn't it good to know? I've been around church leaders and even in our culture because we are so, I mean, I just want to be real blunt for a second. Um, I don't know the hearts of men who lead churches, a lot of the churches around. I don't know them, and I and I just know my own heart. And I'm telling you right now that in the American church, there is a sad reality that for many Christian leaders, Christian pastors, we are so concerned about protecting our little kingdoms that we are afraid to call people to truth in the gospel. So, like, we don't want to talk about sin, or we don't want people to be offended. We don't want people to like feel like we're we're we're criticizing them. And so we soften the truth about who God is and his holiness, and we soften the fact that sin is actually uh causes separation between us and God and then deserves punishment, deserves death, because we don't want to offend people, because we don't want them to leave our churches so that we can keep the doors open, so that we can keep getting paid. Ouch. And if the truth is that if we are going to walk in the light, we can call out sin because we know the antidote. We know the solution to sin. So we don't shrink back from calling sinned. Because we get to call people to the beauty of God's grace that meets us into sin. Are you here? So we don't stop talking about sinfulness and how that we've got issues that we need to resolve. I mean, the fact of the matter is this in a room this size, there is addiction in this room. There are sinful patterns and habits in this room, and and everybody's good at putting on a facade. I understand that. I was masterful at it. I grew up in the church. I was an expert. I'm an oldest child who's a perfectionist. I wanted to please my parents. So I was a great manager of sin. And I could make my parents think, and I can make others think that because I knew the right answers, there was nothing going on in my heart. There are pastors, there are leaders, there are people just like me who are in that same boat. I've been there. But you can't stay there if you're truly a child of God because God's going to bring discipline, He's going to bring truth. And he says that if we will allow him to, he will come and heal us. He will bring salvation, he will bring redemption, he will bring rescue, he'll bring restoration. Listen, just a word here. The people, the most critical people I know, people who like slander, are Christians who are still trying to build their resume before God because they think that somehow in their own goodness that they're going to get God's approval, they're going to get salvation, they're going to get heaven. That is not biblical. If your house turns into a slander fest, it's because you've lost sight of grace. If you sit around criticizing people saying, Did you see them? Did you see that? Did you see what they did? Did you see what they were wearing? Did you see what they said? Did you see what they were, like, did you see their kids? That's called, we have lost sight of the grace of God. Because none of us deserve his kindness and his love and his mercy and forgiveness. In the same breath, if we are afraid to call our brothers and sisters out who might be walking in sin, that's called hate. You're like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. How is that? Because what I'm saying to you is I don't care enough about you walking in freedom and joy. I just want to be comfortable and I don't want you to be offended by me. I don't want you to not like me, upset with me. So I'm not going to call you to freedom and joy in Christ. I'm not going to call you to repentance, is what we call that. Right? A change of direction. The beauty is in Christ and in the gospel. We can call each other out, but not because we're better than anybody else, but because we have grace and we want everybody else to experience the grace of God and the freedom of God and the joy of God. And so this woman caught in adultery, these guys, these religious guys who knew the Torah, the Old Testament scriptures, the Jewish scriptures, they knew them backwards and forth. In fact, they had memorized them. And they had made their case for why their own righteousness was good enough. And what they needed was the light of the world to shine in their hearts, to reveal their true motives, and hopefully to bring about genuine repentance. That's not what happens in this story for these guys. And as I said, the beauty of what's going on here is so freeing and it's so great. That Jesus, as the light of the world, he afflicts the comfortable, but he comforts the afflicted. And he kindly but firmly calls us to walk in his light and not in darkness. The same writer, John, he writes these other letters, first, second, and third John later, and he says that as children of the light, we should no longer walk in darkness. If you are a broken person, you can come to Jesus. If you have sexual sin in your life, you can come to Jesus. You know what's interesting about the way that this story plays out, you know, there's some of us in this room who we categorize sins and we say, well, you know, I'm not the woman caught in adultery because I never did that. You know, Jesus doesn't say like there's certain sins that are worse than others. He says any sin is a direct rebellion to my plan and my purpose and my holiness. And wherever you are, slander, gossip, pornography, adultery straight up, whatever it is, like this woman, lying, like we all need Jesus. We all need his grace. And he offers it because he is full of grace and truth that calls us to live differently, that calls us to walk in holiness and freedom. I think that probably some of the reason why we don't experience that again is because you're like me, as I said earlier, we get to be professional image managers. And we just make ourselves look good enough to kind of get by with others, but we don't allow the light of the world, even though it's already exposed, to come in and to bring freedom. Um if you've ever been in a movie theater, uh they do better nowadays, but where you watch the movie and then at the end they like somebody just like turns the lights up real bright, and you're like, you know, your eyes are kind of hurting, or you've been in a really dark space and you come into the light, or somebody walks in your room and you've been sleeping and turns the lights on, you know, and your light, your eyes are first like it kind of feels painful at first, doesn't it? That's just a physical illustration. Sometimes the light initially is a little bit hard to deal with. It's a little painful, it's a little overwhelming. But again, the thing about God is that He is gentle, He is gracious, He is merciful. And one of the reasons why, a few of the reasons why I guess we we don't really deal with this stuff is because we have all of our excuses. We got them loaded in the hopper, ready to go. Jesus says, Come to me, and you're like, Yeah, well, I'm just I'm just not not ready, just not interested, or you won't really love me. Jesus? I heard I heard this this phrase this week and it stuck with me throughout the entire week. And it was this phrase, we even talked about it at our elder retreat. Um, many of us, when we come to Christ, well, all of us when we come to Christ, we come and we're we're broken creatures and we start to believe the gospel and we experience freedom and forgiveness for the first time. The problem is our past doesn't go away. And so this phrase that stuck with me all week is that most of us are learning how to apply the gospel as we go forward, but many of us need to learn how to apply the gospel back. Some of you in this room are paralyzed by the fact that you've performed badly in the past. You've done some really wicked, evil things, and that's holding you back. And the truth is that you need to know Jesus Christ forgives, and he can redeem and he can restore. Just like this woman. In our lives, he can do this. But we have to stop making excuses, and here's another one. We have to stop blaming others. Well, they did this. Well, my parents did this. Well, that person wounded me. I understand that we get wounded, and it's it's not good. And I'm not saying that we shouldn't wrestle with this. And by the way, I hope you know this, but God, he's a just God and he's gonna hold everyone accountable. But we have to stop blame shifting if we want to walk in the wholeness and the healing that God has. Let him heal you today. Let him free you of the addiction that you have. And then if we've experienced God's grace, let's not go back to the slavery of the darkness. I'll just finish with this. When we sin, when we blow it, um, if you are a believer in Jesus, when you sin, when you blow it, you need to know that you don't take your sin to the law. You take it to the cross. You're like, well, what does that mean? We're really, really good at doing what the Pharisees did and taking it to the law. Okay, we broke this law, and here's what we did, and here's what we deserve. As a Christ follower, as a child of God, we take it to the cross. Because not a stone was thrown at this young woman, and yet we know this to be true. They hurled stones and insults and spears at Jesus. Jesus purchased our freedom. He took the condemnation that we deserve. He took that. As the light of the world who sees everything, who reveals the path to life, he paid the price so that we could be free. So, Christians, God's not looking for you to just be a good church person. He's looking for you to experience the joy and the peace and the hope and the life that is offered in the person of Jesus. To walk in freedom. And if you want to do that today, then I encourage you to humble yourself and to seek his face. Come to him and to begin to walk in freedom today by his grace, by his power. Confess to a brother or sister in Christ, I have an issue and I need God's help. If we don't name our sin, Jesus will name it for us, but if we name it, he will forgive us. Let's pray. God, thank you so much. Um, thank you that today I as I stand here, a man unworthy of any of your love, grace, compassion, kindness. God, if it were based on how I've performed this week and keeping your law and obeying you and following you and trusting you, I would be done. No hope, no joy, no peace, no life. But I thank you today that I stand as a child of God free from condemnation. Like Romans 8 proclaims, therefore in Christ there is now no condemnation. Conviction, yes. Condemnation, no. I thank you for the beauty of the gospel that is unafraid to call us out for our sin and liberally pours out grace upon grace as we humbly acknowledge our need for you. Um I pray that there's anyone in this room who has never received the gift of salvation, never put their trust and their hope in you, never actually said, Jesus, I blow it, I blew it, I've blown it in my past, and today I want to walk in forgiveness. I pray that today would be that day. Jesus, I surrender and I submit my will to you. Your word says there anyone who follows me will no longer walk in darkness, but will walk in the light. So the more we follow you, the more we find ourselves in the light, the beauty, and all that you offer. Thank you. Thank you, Jesus.