I please the Lord to bless us
together this morning as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
second epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, chapter four, and
we'll read verses three and four. The second epistle of Paul to
the Corinthians, chapter four, and reading verses three and
four. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid
to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded
the minds of them which believe not, lest the lights of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them. The whole word of God, really
from Genesis to Revelation, is a word which describes to us
the difference between those who are the people of God and
those who are not. And every one of us here this
morning comes into one of those categories. We're either those
who are blessed and those who know the Lord Jesus Christ as
our Saviour, or we are amongst those who do not. The Word of
God is very searching and it is very dividing. And we today
are wonderfully blessed with the Word of God. that we are
able to read the great truth of God. And as we read the great
truth of God, it might speak to our hearts. And so as we have
this statement here, if our gospel be heard, that means the gospel
that the apostle Paul and the apostles preached, and of course
that all the servants of God preach, and the Gospel which
is set before us so clearly in the Word of God. But if our Gospel
be hid, we may say, well, I can read it. Yes, we can read it. The great question is, has it
been hidden from our souls? Because if so, the truth is,
it is hid to them that are lost." We draw the conclusion. There
are those who are found and there are those who are lost. And those
who are found rejoice in the truth of the Word of God as it
enters into their heart and it produces a wonderful situation. That is, they have a change. They have a new heart. There's
an amazing difference. And it's not known until the
Spirit of God has given us that change. Otherwise, the Gospel
is hid. It's hid. It's hid today from
the majority of the world, the great truth of the Gospel. What a blessing then, and how
we all should be so concerned that the Gospel is not hidden
to us, but it is that which has set
our souls free, that which has brought life into our hearts,
so that we have the evidence that we are born again in the
Spirit of God and looking ahead to the time when we must leave
this earth to realise that such blessings will be eternally ours
in glory. Now we live, we live on this
earth, and again I say this, for such a short time. And the devil's aim is to try
and lull us to sleep, so that we think the only important things
are the things of our natural life, what we shall do at school,
at university, at work, perhaps in retirement, all these things,
and we think of what we shall do and how they will benefit
us. But the great question must be, with reference to the life
of God in our souls. that whether we are amongst those
to whom this Gospel has been hidden. It is such an important consideration
to be able, by the grace of God, to carefully examine our hearts
to see whether we do possess that life of God in our souls. And the evidence of it will be
the light from heaven The light of God will have shone into our
hearts and shown us who we are, what we are, where we are. What
a great need we have of a savior, but it won't stop there. It won't
stop there. The work of the spirit of God,
my friends, leads us to the glory of the gospel, which is to reveal
Christ to us as our savior. So that's when we know that the
Gospel has not been hidden. It's been revealed to us. What
a blessing it is. And it's an amazing blessing.
And it's an eternal blessing. And we have so much to thank
God for if the Holy Spirit has come and shown to us the Lord
Jesus Christ. as the only one that we can rely
upon, the only one that we have a hope in, the only one who has
taken away our sins, and to realise then the Gospel of the truth
of God which points to the Saviour in his sin-atoning death. Perhaps you young people might
think, well, what does to atone for our sins mean. It's a word
which is very familiar to the people of God and you might be
interested to know that it didn't really exist before William Tyndale
did the translation of the Bible and of course from the Greek
in this particular situation and it was obviously a phrase
which was difficult to put into English And therefore he produced
this word, atonement. And it's quite obvious if you
think about it what it means. It means at one meant. And therefore it gives us the
wonderful picture that through the death of Christ, his people
have been made at one with him. united to Christ, and we can
never be united to Christ if we are outside of Christ. We
can never be united to Christ unless we know that Lord Jesus
Christ has taken our sins away, has died for us, and by that
glorious and wonderful action we understand this word, atonement. Well, this morning, what a blessing
if you and I have been made aware in our souls that the Lord Jesus
Christ has atoned for our sins. If that has not been so, then
the truth is, at the moment, at the moment, the great truth
of the Gospel has been hidden from us. We may be familiar with
the Word of God in an outward We spoke to the children the
last time I came, and this time, about two senses that we have. And the senses that we've considered
are the eye with seeing and the ear with hearing. And we really
have a double situation there. Because naturally, we are, unless
we are born deaf, we hear and we see with our eyes. And you
and I need to see with our spiritual eyes and to hear with our spiritual
ears. Now this blessing emanates from
God. We've all been blessed with natural
life. We all need to be blessed with spiritual life. And if we're
blessed with spiritual life, then you see, Our eyes will see
in a spiritual way the great plan of salvation and our spiritual
ears will hear the voice of God. The Holy Spirit will speak to
our hearts. And therefore we must look at
this verse and really look into our own hearts. Oh it's a wonderful
thing if the Holy Spirit awakens us to the need of salvation. so that we're able to say, yes,
I was dead, I was lost, I'm now, I'm found. Have you been lost? Have you
been found? Well, blessed be God if today
you can praise God for that great truth, for that great blessing,
for that great favour. to know that you have been found.
Yes, we've all been lost, and some remain lost and end up in
hell. But those who are found are blessed
with a new life, the God-given life, and therefore no longer
is this gospel hidden from them. Well then, says of the Holy Spirit,
but if our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. And the Apostle expounds this
truth in the following verse when he says, in whom the God
of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not,
lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ Who is the image
of God should shine unto them. Well, what are we told here? The God of this world. Who is the God of this world?
Well, really it's the devil, isn't it? And all the things
that he brings before us, that he wants us to bow down and worship
and to turn us away from the things of God and he is a very
subtle foe. He's very clever at turning us
away from the truth of God and we find then that our spiritual
eyes have been blinded, blinded, in whom the God of this world
has blinded the minds of them which believe not. So what does that lead us to?
It leads us to this, doesn't it? Those who believe and those
who believe not. That's not very difficult to
understand, is it? But all of us either believe
or we believe not. And we should not just think
in a casual way, well, I understand that. You might understand it
with your natural mind, but my friends, do you understand it
with your spiritual mind and have your spiritual sight and
your spiritual ears and therefore the effect is to make you tremble
before God in case you haven't had your eyes open or your ears
unstopped. But you are still in this condition
that you've been blinded, blinded the minds of them which believe
not. We no doubt hear very much, don't
we, about the need to believe. So it is, so, so important to
believe. You look back and you realise
the many accounts in the Word of God where we have such statements
as that. You may remember the very beautiful
account that we have of the Apostle Paul. when he was sent to Philippi
to preach the gospel and he didn't say, well I'm not going there.
No, it's a bit of a tough place to go, I'm not going there. He
went and he preached the gospel, faithful, and what happened to
him then? Well, he was put in prison. He was beaten and he was put
in prison, you see, we're told. The masters saw that the hope
of their gains was gone. They caught Paul and Silas and
drew them into the marketplace under the rulers and brought
them to the magistrates saying, these men being Jews to exceedingly
travel our city and teach customs which are not lawful for us to
receive. Be aware today, my friends, we're
hastening in our country and in many countries of the world
to a situation where it may be unlawful to believe and to receive
the truth of God. Don't think these days of liberty
will ever continue. Bless God for them. But here
we have, you see, these people in this day and age wanting to
stop the preaching of the gospel. We teach customs which are not
lawful for us to receive, neither to observe being Romans. And
the multitude rose up against them. Don't we see it today?
The multitudes rising up against the minority of Christians, minority
of true Christians and trying to silence the gospel. And the multitude rose up together
against them and the magistrates rent off their clothes and commanded
to beat them And when they had laid many stripes upon them for
preaching the gospel, just think of that, for preaching the gospel,
many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging
the jailer to keep them safely. Now, the Lord's work was to appear. And it's good for us to realise
that we worship the same gods today which appeared in quite
an amazing way. We have it here. Who having received
such a charge thrust them into the inner prison and made their
feet fast in the stock. So here was a Jaina to whom the
gospel had been hidden. And at midnight, Paul and Silas
prayed and sang praises unto God and the prisoners heard them.
And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations
of the prison were shaken. You see, God can do great things. God brought an earthquake. And
immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's bands were
loosed. See, the devil can't control
things. God does. Remember that. God is in control. Blessed be God. And so we're
told then, The keeper of the prison, awakening out of his
sleep, he'd been charged for keeping these two people very
fast, especially. And seeing the prison doors opening,
he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing
the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice,
saying, do thyself no harm, for we are all here. He called for
a light, sprang in, and came trembling and fell down before
Paul and Silas. Paul brought them out and said,
sirs, and brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to
be saved? What did they realize? They realized
they were lost. What had happened? The gospel
was shining into their hearts. What did the apostles say? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. and thy house." There had been
very clearly a conviction in the jailer's heart. He was under
the blessed work of the Holy Spirit. He knew he needed to
be saved. And he'd ask the question, what
must I do to be saved? There's only one way. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the same truth today. But
it's not just a question. of people coming and saying,
oh, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We have to realise we're
lost. We have to realise we have a
need. And it's only then that we can
come in a right way, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so we're thankful that we have such a word as this. And they
said, and they spoke unto him the word of the Lord. Here was now The Apostle and
Silas, what a wonderful change. Here was liberty. They were able
to preach the Gospel to this Jada and his household. He had
to go down to Philippi. He had to be oppressed. He had
to be beaten that the Gospel might come to such people as
this. We have a sovereign God. We have
a God who moves today. What a blessing if he's moved
in your heart and my heart, perhaps brought situations to bear where
we've been brought to realise our lost condition and have been
caused to look to the Lord Jesus Christ and then perhaps have
received then the Gospel as it's preached to us as the Apostle
came and they spake unto him the word of the Lord. They didn't
just leave him there and say, OK, that's all right. No, they
preached the gospel to him and to all that were in his house.
What a blessed time it must have been. And the jailer was a changed
man. They took the same hour, the
night, washed their stripes, and was baptized, he and all
his straight way. It was, we might say, an automatic
condition, situation. Here was this man. And what had
Paul preached? clearly preached baptism, hadn't
he? We're not told in so many words,
but quite clearly he had. And therefore the jailer and
all his house were amongst those who believed and were baptised. So we see there the wonder of
this word. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is so important for all of us today to know that you and
I do believe, and there's a reason we believed. And if we have believed,
there's an outworking of that belief. It's not something we
just hide to ourselves and no one knows about it. You see,
there was an outward working. And they went forth, therefore,
and were baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and the Holy Ghost. Well, here we have this word,
in whom the God of this world has blinded. the minds of them,
there was their mind blinded, but now there had been a change,
blinded the minds of them which believed not. Lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine into their hearts. Ah, the wonderful gospel had shone into the jailer and
its household hearts. So there was a wonderful effect,
wasn't it? The light of the glorious gospel
of Christ, which is the image of God, should shine unto them. Well, the question is, isn't
it, for all of us this morning, has that gospel shone into our
hearts? Has it? You've got to answer
the question, you know. You've got to answer it. I don't
think, well, I'm a bit young, I needn't worry about it. You
don't know if you're going to die tomorrow. You do need to
answer it. You do need to know. One of the
Gospels has shone into your hearts. So here's the Apostle writing
now to the Corinthians, spelling these things out in some detail
to them. And what a good thing it is.
spoken into our heart so that we truly bow down before God
and ask the Lord, is it revealed to me Lord? Do I know? Do I know
the truth? Do I know the Lord Jesus Christ
has come and has died for me? Do I realise the wonderful favour
of this or not? Well it's a good thing you know
if we have the evidence of this. Again we have God's Servant,
God's servant, Isaiah. You know, he was wonderfully
blessed, was he not? And he tells us in the 43rd of
Isaiah, it's a very beautiful chapter, because it starts off,
but now thus saith the Lord. Don't forget, the whole Word
of God is really, thus saith the Lord. And what a good thing
when the thus saith the Lord speaks to our hearts. as thus
saith the Lord, not the word of man. You see, I can preach
as the word of man. But if the Lord applies the word,
it's as the word of the Lord. And that's the difference. And
then it comes into our hearts. And then it affects us. And then
we know it's the work of God. And so he tells us, but now thus
saith the Lord. That created the old Jacob. And
he that formed the old Israel, fear not, For I have redeemed
thee." Well, that's a great question, isn't it? To know that you and
I are redeemed, that you and I are amongst those who possess
this blessed work of the Spirit. And the prophet then tells us,
ye are my witnesses, all those to whom the gospel has been revealed,
all those who by the grace of God have believed, are witnesses. We should never forget that.
What a privilege it is, what an amazing blessing to think
that you and me as sinful people are categorised like this. Ye
are my witnesses, saith the Lord, almighty God, speaking to our
hearts in this way. Saith the Lord and my servant
whom I have chosen that ye may know and believe me, and understand
that I am he. Before me there was no God formed,
neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and
beside me there is no Saviour." Isn't that a wonderful statement?
it is to the Church of God, those who are born again in the Spirit
rejoice in such a word as that, and are so thankful for it, to
know that we are amongst those, blessed by the Holy Spirit, who
the Gospel has not been hidden to, it's been open to our spiritual
understanding, so that we are numbered amongst those who believe
me, the Lord Jesus Christ. This morning, are we amongst
those who believe? The Prophet tells us a few chapters
further on in that well-known 53rd chapter of Isaiah. I hope
it's well-known to you. And the Prophet commences with
these words, a question. And it's always good to have
questions which we have to answer. He tells us this. Who hath believed
our report? There are those who will believe
it, and those who do not believe it. Who hath believed our report,
and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed, the work of God
revealed, his work in our hearts? So this morning, there we are,
all of us here. How do we answer that question?
How do we answer it? You've all got to answer it.
All of us have got to. Who has believed our report?
Have we? Have we not? You've got to answer before God.
And if you've not believed the report, and the report is, of
course, the Word of God, that which speaks about the Lord
Jesus Christ and his Sacrifice for sin. We have the report in the Word
of God, the whole Word of God is a report really. Do we believe
it? Do you and I believe it this
morning? Is it that which we rely upon, the promises of God? In whom the God of this world
has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious Gospel, the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ,
who is the image of God, should shine unto them. Now, you may
say, well, why did you read that chapter in Exodus this morning?
I don't see there's any relevance. Well, the relevance is very simple. It's good, isn't it, when the
Word of God has very simple evidences. You remember there There was
Israel with a real problem facing a situation. They didn't know
how they were going to be delivered. And they were in the Red Sea
in front of them. What was going to happen? What
was going to happen? Well, Moses told them. What did
Moses say? He said, fear ye not. Stand still
and see. the salvation of the Lord, which
he will show you today. For the Egyptians whom you have
seen today, you shall see them no more forever. May all the
people of God have a today in their spiritual life when the
Lord came and comes and speaks to our hearts. Here was a day
naturally when Israel were going to be delivered. How was it going
to happen? The Lord was going to appear. In our little lives
sometimes we think, how is that going to happen? The Lord appears. The Lord appears. He told Moses,
what did he do with his rod? Yes, he stretched out his hand
over the sea. Very simple, wasn't it? And the
Lord worked. The Lord worked. And not only
did Israel go across the land, the sea on dry land, but also,
of course, the Egyptians thought they would follow. Yes, you see,
the Lord, He was watching. The Lord watches over you and
me, my friends. And the enemy sometimes can be
destroyed. They can be moved. They can disappear. So suddenly, here they were. the Egyptians were destroyed.
And we read together in that last verse, it was a very beautiful
verse, and Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon
the Egyptians, and the people feared the Lord and believed
the Lord and his servant Moses. And that was the evidence. Now,
have we got an evidence in our life? Not, no doubt, as dramatic
as this. It may be dramatic, I don't know.
There may have been a wonderful deliverance in your life. And if so, has it enabled you
to believe on the Lord God, to fear his name as that great almighty
God? Well, we have that. That's why
I already read that account this morning. And then following on
in the Old Testament, I'm sure most of you are familiar. with
the account of Daniel. Daniel, of course, was a man
of God, but Daniel still needed God to appear for him. And it's a good thing, therefore,
when we realise that the Lord did appear for Daniel. And that
was a frightful prospect, wasn't it? Because he was told that
if he didn't bow down to the idol that had been set up, then
you see he'd be cast into the den of lions. No, sorry, he wasn't
to pray, was he? He wasn't to bow down and pray
to any other than Darius. And well, he refused to do that
and therefore he was cast into the den of lions. What was going
to happen? Fierce lions? Hungry lions? No. The king now was a concerned
man. He realised how foolish he'd been in making a decree
And just think that sometimes he did things because of his
pride. That's really what it was about.
How wonderful to have all the people bow down to him. Be aware
of your pride. Very dangerous. It can lead you
into many snares, dangerous places. Well, Darius was concerned. And we're told he went to bed
and he didn't sleep. He got up early in the morning
and he came to the den and he cried to Daniel these words,
O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest
continually, able to deliver thee from the lions? Was there
going to be an answer? Daniel said, O King, live forever.
My God has sent his angel and has shut the lions' mouths that
they have not hurt me for as much as before him innocency
was found in me. And also, before the old king
am I done, no hurt. And what did the king say? Then
was the king exceeding glad for him, and commanded that they
should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken
up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him. Why
was that? We're told, because he believed
in his God. So my friends today, We need
to be given that grace to believe in God, in natural things, in
our lives. We need God. You children need
God to help you in your exams and your places at university.
You need God to help you. Believe that the Lord God will
help you. Daniel believed that the Lord
God would be with him, and he was. And he was delivered. Don't forget we have the same
God today. The same God delivered Daniel. Daniel was only a person like
you and me, no different. Just the same. Yet God heard
his prayer. He believed in the Lord God. So what a wonderful thing today.
If you and I can come in this way and indeed believe in the
Lord God. And so in whom the God of this
world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not blest."
And this is the real central part of this. The light and the
light shines. The light from heaven shines
into our heart. Blessed be God if that has done
so. You must answer before God this
morning. I can't answer for you. Has the
light shone? Has the light shone? the light
from heaven. Because what does it do? It reveals the glorious gospel of
Christ, who is the image of God, and that it should shine unto
them. The glorious gospel of Christ. Again, when the Holy Spirit works
in our hearts, it's not just a theory of the gospel. It becomes
a real gospel. It becomes a glorious gospel.
Because we realize that the Lord Jesus Christ has died to atone
for our sins. And that we have a hope through
his death of the great gift of eternal life. Whereas all our
sins are forever washed away. And it is well with our soul
and by his grace we shall spend eternity with our Saviour and
you'll be able to say by the grace of God, tremendous thought
isn't it, my Saviour, the One who has died for me. Well, then you see the Gospel
won't be hidden, it'll be revealed and you'll rejoice and you'll
bless God for such a great truth of that. May it be so today,
Remembrance Sunday. May you have a remembrance of
God's goodness and of God's favour, of God's love, of God's grace,
and to go on your way rejoicing, praising God for his goodness
toward you. And so we have these words, but
if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom
the God of this world has blinded the minds of them, which believe
not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, whose image
of God should shine unto them. Amen.