2 Corinthians chapter 4, and begin
with me here in verse 1. Therefore seeing we have this
ministry, we have this ministry, and he's speaking about the ministry
in chapter 3. He says, we have been made ministers,
able ministers of the new covenant, not of the Not of the law. We don't preach Moses. Moses
kills us. Moses accuses us. Moses curses
us. James says Moses has in every
city them that preach him. But Paul said we don't preach
the law. We preach it to convict men.
We preach it to show men the holy character of God. But we
don't preach it for salvation. We don't preach it for justification.
We have another ministry. We have a ministry of the Spirit,
he says, a ministry of righteousness, a ministry of life that's in
Jesus Christ. Seeing we have this ministry
as we have received mercy, that's what we seek after, isn't it?
Mercy. And before you preach this gospel, you need to obtain
mercy. Paul says, since we obtain mercy,
Mercy that saved us. Mercy to preach. We don't faint. We don't lose heart. He says
there in verse 2, we have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. Paul used to preach. He was always
a preacher. But he was a dishonest man. He
said he was a deceiver. He deceived himself and deceived
other people. Telling people that they could
be saved by works. Telling people that they had
inherent goodness. There were some sparks of divinity. All they needed to do was fan
it. That's not being honest, is it? And that's what he told
them. You need to establish a righteousness
before God. And you can do it. You just need
to try hard like myself. That's not being honest, is it?
Paul said, I've renounced all that. That's dumb. That's behind
me. That's self-righteous. that legalism. I don't walk in craftiness. I'm
not deceitful. I'm not slipping up on people.
I'm not a magician. I'm not an entertainer. I'm not
handling the Word of God deceitfully. I don't adulterate the Word of
God. But my manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God. Judge yourself, he said. I preach
to you. You know me. Let your conscience
answer whether I'm telling you the truth or not. You've opened
your Bibles with me. I've taught you what it says.
And what does your conscience say? I've preached before God. I've stood, as it were, before
God. And I've preached to your conscience. And you know in your
conscience that I'm telling you the truth. I'm an apostle in
the sight of God. What a sincere and honest man
this apostle was. Nothing to hide, everything open,
telling men the truth as it is revealed in the Word of God.
But he goes on here in verse 3 and he says, in spite of me
preaching the truth, look at this, our gospel is yet
hid, and it is hid to them that are lost, if our gospel be hid. Well, if he preached it in the
sincerity of his heart, if he preached it in truth before God,
why weren't all his errors saved? Well, he gives a good reason
here for it. And the problem is, here he says, they're perishing. They're in their natural state. Why can a man sit under the gospel
and not be saved by it? Well, he does not understand
it. He is in darkness. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither
can he know them. They are foolishness unto him.
They make no sense. They are empty. They are vain.
That's the first reason. That's the problem that men aren't
saved. They're perishing. They're lost. They're natural.
And in verse 4, he gives another reason. "...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 through unto them. Here's another problem
the natural man has. The God of this world, Satan. He's in the mind, you see. And
he has, if God permits him, the power to blind it. He has all
kinds of means. He uses prejudice. self-righteousness, all kinds
of means. And he steals the Word from the
heart, or he pulls down the blinds on the windows so the light can't
get in. We're not ignorant of his devices.
We see him at work in men's minds, don't we? Men are bad enough
in their natural state, but I tell you, Satan makes it worse. But in verse 6 and verse 5, In
verse 5, he says, Satan has blinded their minds, lest the light of
the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine to them. And he said, because we have
such a glorious gospel in verse 5, we preach not ourselves, but
Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves, we are just servants for your
sake. And then in verse 6 and verse
7, He gives another reason why men do not hear the gospel, why
men are not saved by the gospel, why the light of the gospel does
not shine through unto them. And look at it this way, verse
6. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure, this
treasure of the gospel, this ministry in earthen vessels that
the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. What's he saying here? He's saying
we preach the gospel generously. We've withheld it from Lomax,
preached it in truth with all our hearts, and he gives these
reasons for men not being saved by it. And the last reason here
he's given is this, and let me say it this way. It's not enough
that we preach the gospel. It's not enough that the gospel
come to men in mere word only. I can do that. All of us here
can set forth the gospel if we know it in word, but Paul said,
that will not save men. It must come in the command of
God. And it must come in the power
of God. Until it does that, men will
remain lost and perish. I have no problem this morning
saying that Jesus Christ is offered to all men in the gospel. I have no problem this morning
to say that all men are invited to come to Christ and to God
by Him on the terms of the gospel. Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return unto the Lord.
Who is that to? That's for everybody that reads
that or has that preached to him. Come and let us reason together. Who do we tell that to? Anybody
and everybody. We have no problem with that,
do we? But you know, just preaching that in word never saved anybody. Paul said we preach it freely,
but it's hidden. Let a man preach the gospel as
clearly and freely as he will and can. But if men only hear
the voice of the preacher, they will not, neither can they, be
saved. Not even the gospel preached
by these great apostles would save them, apart from it coming
at the command and in the power of God. And then, and then only,
does the light shine into the dark heart and save a man from
his sin. I want you to look over here
to your right in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, and
look in verse 4. Some of you may remember Jack
Howes. He was a preacher up around Hammond,
Indiana. He's probably the father of modern-day
soul winning. He had a mega church up there.
At that time, probably the biggest in the United States. I had some
friends of mine who attended his congregation. He wrote several
books on soul winning, modern-day style soul winning. He bragged
how quickly he could save a soul. That he could save a soul on
an elevator between the first and second floor. And he had
a huge congregation. He could talk them in to being
saved. You know the apostles couldn't
even do that. The apostles realized that. Paul
said, nobody preaches the gospel better than I do. Nobody knows
it any clearer than I do. Man didn't teach me that. Jesus
Christ taught me the gospel by revelation. But He said people
I preach to, many of them are still lost. And He said they will be until
God commands the light to shine. And the power of the Holy Spirit
accompanies the gospel. and breaks through the fog and
the confusion and the darkness of the natural heart and the
satanic power and gives light to the conscience. And the heart
is ablaze with the light of the gospel. Look here how he says
it in 1 Thessalonians 1 and look in verse 4. Knowing, brethren
beloved, your election of God. Paul says, I know it. I have
seen the effects of your election. You know it because you felt
it in your soul. What was it that made him to
know they were his God's elect? For our gospel came not to you
in word only. It must come in word. God has
commanded us to preach the word, but it must not come in word
only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost. and in much assurance."
There's the way it must come. Power and in the Holy Ghost. I think, God, it does come this
way. I think it's come to some of you here this morning this
way, hasn't it? And I think I can say about some of you as I can
say about myself, by the grace of God, knowing your election. You can articulate the gospel,
some of you, very well. But you can do more than just
articulate it. You've felt the power of it.
It's reached your heart. It has changed you from within,
thoroughly changed you. If not, you'd have still been
lost, wouldn't you? You'll still be living in your
own nature, deceived by the devil. This Corinthian church is the
same church that Paul wrote to and he made this statement to
them. Who makes you to differ from another? That's a good question
there. Who makes you to differ? Why do you know the truth while
others believe the lie? Why is your faith in the power
of God while others' faith is in the power of their free will? Who makes you to differ? Why
is your faith in the blood of Christ while others trust in
confessions and baptisms and alters and tears? Why is your
faith in the Lord your righteousness while others have faith in their
faith? That's a good question, isn't
it? Why? Why? Who makes you to differ?
Why has the gospel humbled you and put you in the dust ascribing
all the glory to the God of grace and mercy while others go on
bragging about what they've allowed God to do for them? What makes
you differ from them? Why has the gospel wrought a
thorough change from within sight of you, and why has it wrought
only an outward change in them? Who makes you to differ? And what have you but what you
have received? You received it from without,
didn't you? There was nothing in you. God commanded the light
to shine in your heart. The power wasn't in you, but
the power came from without to your heart in the Gospel. God
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness. If God commands something to
take place, absolutely, and He puts His power behind that command,
do you think it will be done? I think we have some proof of
that, and I want you to turn over to Genesis chapter 1. Look in Genesis chapter 1. This
is where the Apostle Paul was quoted from in our text. God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness. Look here how the Apostle, how
Moses quoted it here. Here's where Paul got that quote
from. Look what he says here. When
God commands and He puts His power behind that commandment,
it will be accomplished. God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness. Look here what he says in verse
1. Genesis 1. Layla told me the other day,
my granddaughter, she said, this is my favorite portion of Scripture. Genesis beginning in verse 1.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning, God. Oh, you just think about that
for a minute, and you realize suddenly that God is not like
us. And here's one of the ways that
He's not like us. He was in the beginning. He had no beginning. He was in
the beginning. When the beginning began, He
was there. He began the beginning. Boy, Job, Job, he got frustrated
because of his sufferings and he got to the point after a while
where he thought God didn't really know what he was doing. He's
put too much on me and he wanted to try to counsel God and instruct
the Lord. And the Lord appeared to him
finally and said, Job, I want to ask you a question. And I
want you to be a man and stand up and answer me. Where were
you when I laid the foundation of the world? You think you know
something? You think you can tell me how
to run the show? You think you know better than
I do? You think you're smart? Where were you back yonder in
the beginning? Where were you, Job? Boy, that
alone puts a man in the dust, doesn't it? You know where Job
was? He had no beginning. Job wasn't here. And can't that
be said about everything and everybody? The sun that gives us light of
a day as mighty as it is? Where were you in the beginning,
O sun? And your moon and your stars
that gives us light of the night? And you ocean and all your depths,
and you mountains that stood through the ages, where were
you when God laid the foundation of the earth? They weren't there.
Nothing was there. But this triune God in the trinity
of His sacred person, from everlasting to everlasting, He is God. He is nothing like us, is He?
He is God. Somebody reminded me last week
that Luther wrote to Erasmus, I think it was, and says, Erasmus,
your whole problem is your God is too human. He's too much like
you. He's too much like us. Oh, God
is nothing like us, is He? That's why we can be saved. God's
nothing like us. all His creatures from the mighty
angels that do the Lord's bidding to those rebellious spirits that
was cast out of heaven and the whole human race were just creatures
of time and space. The best and the most mighty
are just creatures. The God of this world, He's a
creature That's all we are, brothers and
sisters. We occupy one little space between the eternities.
We occupy one little space here where we go and where we walk.
We're so limited, but God is not limited. He inhabits eternity. And when He created the heavens
and the earth, He now fills it. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth, and then He filled them. with himself. Creation is something God often
boasts about. He boasts about it. And I think
if He hadn't created it, He wouldn't be saying He did. And He wouldn't
be bragging about Him doing it either. But He often calls our
attention that He created the heavens and Let me read you some
places. I've got them wrote down here
so you won't have to turn to them. Listen to Isaiah chapter
40. To whom will you liken me? Am I like idols? Am I like you? Am I like anything you can conjure
up or imagine? Or shall I be equal, saith the
Holy One? And then he says this to them.
Lift up your eyes on high. And behold, who hath created
these things, that brings out their host by number? He calls them all by names. By the greatness of His might
He is strong in power. Not one fails." This universe
is vast. They have no idea how many stars
and planets there is. They have no idea how many solar
systems there is. There's billions of solar systems. And each solar system has billions
of stars. And He knows them. He's named
them. And He upholds them by the Word
of His power. Who will you liken me to? Lord,
there's none like You. There is no God besides You. And when he's speaking of the
success of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he'll bring victory to the
Gentiles, I think you'll find this in Isaiah 42. Remember when
the Lord God said, will he not break and smoke and flax? He'll
not quench? He'll send forth victory to the
Gentiles. And the Lord makes this statement. He shall not fail nor be discouraged
until he accomplishes He'll have accomplished that which I sent
Him to do. And then He says this, to make
you and I know that He will support Christ His anointed. He says
this, Thus saith the Lord, the Lord God that created the heavens
and stretched them out, that spread forth the earth and that
which cometh out of it, He that giveth breath to the people and
spirit to them that walketh therein, I will hold his hand and give
him for covenant of the people." Will Christ the Lord accomplish
everything the Father charged Him to do? Yes, He will. He already
has accomplished the redemption upon the cross in His glorious
humanity. And how did He do that? The Father,
the Creator, upholds Him with His right hand. Does He have
the power to do that? Look up. Look around you. He commanded, and it stood fast. He just spake the Word, and there
it is. He's the Almighty. In Jeremiah chapter 10, when
the Lord was writing, to make men afraid of their dumb idols,
warning them of their idols and idol worship. He wanted to teach
them of Himself. He uses the God of creation to
do it. Let me quote this to you too,
but you can read it in Jeremiah chapter 10. Thus saith the Lord
God in verse 2, Learn not the way of the heathen. That's where
we're going back to now. Heathenism. And we glorify it. Glorify it. And be not dismayed
at the signs of heaven. You don't read that, I hope,
in the newspaper. What is it they call that? Astrology or
something? Ain't that silly. You don't read
that in the newspaper. You go see how your day is going
to go by looking what month you were born in. I hope you don't
read that. Don't be dismayed at those signs
of heaven. For the customs of the people
are vain. For one cuts a tree out of the
forest, the works of the hands of man. He does it with his axe. They deck it with silver and
with gold. They fasten it with nails and
with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as a palm tree,
but they speak not. They must needs be carried, because
they cannot go. They don't have legs. If they
had legs, they don't have any energy. They don't have any life.
Be not afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither also
is it in them to do good. For as much as there is none
like unto thee, O Lord, thou art great, and thy name is great
in might. Who would not fear thee, O King
of nations? For thee doth it appertain, for
as much as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all
their kingdoms, there is none like thee. But they are altogether
brutish and foolish. The stock is a doctrine of vanity. Silver spread into plates is
brought from Parshas, and gold from Euphrates. The work of the
workmen and of the hands of the founder, blue and purple, is
their clothing. They are all the work of cunning
men." But look at this, the Lord is the true God. He is the living
God and an everlasting King. And his wrath the earth shall
tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation. Thus shall they say unto them,
The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they
shall perish from the earth and from under heaven. He, God, hath
made the earth by his power. He hath established the world
by his wisdom. He hath stretched out the heavens. by His understanding, His discretion. He's not like anything else,
is He? He's not like ours. He's not like us. Sometimes when
the Lord wants to humble us, He opens our hearts to see His
creation. And boy, in the light of that,
He makes us see our insignificance. Listen to David in Psalms 3.
When I consider your heavens, The work of your fingers. The
work of your fingers. The heavens in all its vastness. What is it? The work of His fingers. Just His fingers. My wife was
crocheting a piece the other night, and all she was using
was her fingers. When God created this vast universe, how did He
do it? His fingers. Oh, He's so vast. He's so wise. He's so powerful.
Just His fingers. When I consider the heavens,
the moon and the stars which you've made in your wisdom and
your power, and then think of all your immensity and fill in
heaven and in earth, what is man? Insignificant, little, unimportant,
small man that you should be mindful of. In the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth. And oh, how much He teaches
us by these things. And He says He did it by Himself. Listen to Isaiah 44, 24. I am
the Lord that maketh all things, that stretcheth out the heavens
alone, that spreadeth abroad the earth by Myself. And then Isaiah 45. Ten times
in that chapter, he says, there is none else. There is no other
God. I know not any. Ten times he
says that. I'm the only Creator. There is
none else. I'm the only Redeemer. There
is none else. We talk about a narrow religion,
a dogmatic religion. Christianity is the narrowest
religion that's ever been in this world. They talk about Islam,
how narrow that is. Oh, Islam has nothing on Christianity.
There is but one God, and there is no more. No room for any other. If you have one Sovereign, that's
enough, isn't it? There is but one Savior, Jesus
Christ. But one name, but one way, back
to Him. Oh, it's an irony, ain't it?
By myself. By myself. And look back in our Don't that say a lot when you
begin to trace this down? In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. That tells us a lot. Because
notice verse 2, And the earth was without form and void, and
darkness was upon the face of the deep. I bet you that was
a darkness that could be felt, don't you? You ever been in a
room where there was absolutely no light? I mean, you literally
cannot see your hand in front of your face. I bet that's what
this darkness was like. And it was over the face of the
deep, and look at this, and the Spirit of God moved upon the
face of the waters, and God said that where there is command.
These are the very two things that we begin with. God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness. And here he has this word, let
there be light, and suddenly the face of the deep was ablaze
with light. All the fog and all the darkness
and all the confusion was dispelled and everything was as white as
light. How could that be? God commanded
it. When God commands the light of
the gospel to shine in the dark heart of a poor, confused, and
miserable sinner, his ignorance of the way of salvation and life
eternal will be dispelled. It will. In the light, in that light,
he will see himself accepted and blessed in the Beloved the
Lord Jesus Christ. I'm telling you, if God commands
it, He will. When God commands something and
He puts power behind this command, brothers and sisters, it will
happen. It will happen. It happened to you, didn't it? You say, well, you've got to
let it. What did man have to do with
dispelling the darkness upon creation? He wasn't even there, was he?
What does he have to do with dispelling the ignorance of his
heart? Anything? He'll be dispelled
when God commands the light to shine into it. That's when he'll
be dispelled. Men can't stop it. Devils can't
stop it from shining into the heart. If they could, they'd
do it. And therefore, nobody would be
saved. You and I are utterly dependent upon the power and
the command of God to be saved by the gospel. Oh, if we just
had old so-and-so here. If we could just get old so-and-so.
He's got such a way of preaching. Has he now? Does he have the power to take
the light of the gospel to a dark heart? No, he don't. Not even
these great apostles had that power. That's reserved for this
God alone. God commanded the light to shine
out of darkness. Let me say this, and I'm coming
to a close. The glory of God in creation,
as marvelous as that is, is little to be compared to God's glory
and redemption. He says quite a bit about His
creating this universe and the earth, but He says a lot about
His redeeming glory. He made the world and He made
the heavens, and He did it for the most part by His Word. He
spake and it was done. Let there be light. Let there
be affirmation. He commanded and it stood fast.
But I tell you what, it took some work to redeem a poor sinner. He couldn't do that with just
speaking. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came down from
heaven to do that, didn't He? God in our humanity did that. Suffering. being tempted of men
and devils, growing weary, going about doing good, healing all
that was oppressed of the devil, being sold, being betrayed, being
forsaken of men and God upon the cross. And I tell you, it was so difficult
to redeem a sinner that it took all the strength the Son of God
had to do it. Strength of nothing, but none
to spare. And He agonized, He groaned,
and He sweated. The beard was plucked from His
face. The whites of the bones of His back appeared. Darkness
was over Him. He suffered, and He bled, and
He died to redeem His people. And we
see the glory of God in this remnant. It shows His handiwork.
But I tell you where you see the chief glory of God. It's in the cross. It's in the
face of the Lord Jesus Christ. You go to this universe and you
go to the earth and all the creatures, there's a lot you don't find
out about God. But if you want to know God and
all His eternal attributes, go to the cross. Go to the cross. There we see the attributes of
God displayed like no other place. There is justice. We want to
see the justice of God. There it is, smiting His Son
for our sins. You want to see the wrath of
God, how He hates sins? He spared not His own Son. You
want to see love? You want to see the love of God?
Go to the cross. Does God love poor sinners? Look to the cross and you'll
never doubt it again. You'll never doubt it for yourself
again. Greater love hath no man than this. Oh, there is a greater
display of God's tender mercy for the misery. Our grace for
the needy. Our goodness for the bad. Our
pity for the perishing. Our power for the helpless. Where do we see all of this?
At the cross. You want to know God? I tell
you where He's made known. You want to see His glory? It's
in the redeeming face of Jesus Christ the Lord. And I tell you
when we see it, when God commands the light to shine in our hearts. Let me quote these two scriptures
for you, and we'll close in this. Here's our confidence. This is
a wonderful passage, Psalm 71.3. Be thou my strong habitation,
whereunto I may continue to resort. Thou hast given commandment to
save me." Isn't that wonderful? Why are you saved? Are you saved? Do you know the Lord? Why are
you saved? Isn't this wonderful? Psalm 71.3,
Thou hast given commandment to save me. I imagine he gave that
commandment to his son, don't you? My son, I've given you this
man. Now save him. Whatever it costs,
save him. Holy Spirit, I've given this
man to you. Save him. Commandment. Boy, that's confidence, ain't
it? Can you imagine when you were lost in your sins in nature? Did you have any idea that God
had given a commandment for you to be saved? Isn't that wonderful? Psalms 44, 4. Thou art my King,
O God. Command, command deliverances
for Jacob. There's a bunch of Jacob's. There's a bunch of God's elect,
hopefully, that hasn't been called yet. And you know what we're
praying? Command. Deliverance. Command they be saved. That's
what we're praying for. Boy, that's a good plea, ain't
it? Go right to the throne of grace and say, Oh God, would
you command my poor children to be saved? And if there He
is, He'll give the command, they'll be saved. God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our And you know what? You read it
in Philpot. My wife was reading it to me
last night. He's talking about the Lord as my son. And he said,
look how long the sun has been shining on people. Untold billions of people the
sun's shined on. Look at all the people all over
the world at all times. Look at the food that the sun
has raised. from its warmth and its sunbeam.
Look at the food that it's fed the countless number of people.
And it's still shining today just as strong as it ever was.
And he said Christ is our sun. He has shined in our hearts and
he just keeps on shining and shining and shining and his beam
has never grown dim. He shines as brightly today. Has he ever had? Oh, he's the
sun. Oh, may he shine in our hearts
for his glory. Let's pray.