Alright brethren, let's turn
to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Thank you Eric for preaching
the first hour. We're just going to look at two
verses here, 2 Corinthians 4, verses 3 and 4. And let's read
this slowly and repeat it and let's get this word down in our
heart before we begin. Verse 3, But if our gospel be
hid, if our gospel be hid, That word hid is the same word that
he used in chapter 3, which is translated veiled. If our gospel
be veiled, it is veiled to them that are lost. If our gospel be veiled, it is
veiled to them that are lost. in whom the God of this world,
the God of this age, 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. Let me read that again. "...in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, so that, or
in order to keep the light of the glorious gospel of Christ,
who is the image of God, from shining unto them." Let me read
Young's literal translation. It said, If also our good news
is veiled, in those perishing it is veiled. In whom the God
of this age did blind the minds of the unbelieving, that there
doth not shine forth to them the light of the good news of
the glory of the Christ, who is the image of God. Now, lost
and blind sinners like to blame their unbelief on the gospel,
they like to blame their unbelief on God's Word, and they like
to blame their unbelief on God's ministers. They blame it on the
Word, they blame it on the Gospel, they blame it on God's ministers.
They'll raise questions about whether or not the Bible is really
God's Word. You know, if you start to speak
with a man and he questions whether or not the Bible is God's Word,
you have no foundation on which to speak. You know, that has
to be settled by God in a man's heart that this is God's Word.
But they'll bring up questions about, is this the Word of God
or not? They'll bring up questions about
Christ coming, God coming in human flesh. You know, how do
you know that was God in human flesh? Things like that. bring
up questions about the gospel and whether or not God is really
working through the preaching of the gospel to save His people.
These are all questions that fly right in the face of the
clear Word of God. And yet these are things men
will bring up. Well, Paul knew the gospel. He knew the truth.
Christ had spoken to Paul. Christ had revealed the gospel
to Paul. Paul knew Christ. He knew the truth of the gospel.
All God's people who are truly saved know the Gospel. You know
the truth of the Gospel. Christ has been revealed in your
heart. And you know. My hope is Christ. I see Him
in this Word. I understand what God teaches
about Him. And I know whom I have believed. I know this Word is so. God's
revealed it to me. I know it's so. And so Paul spoke
dogmatically. Paul spoke very, very clearly. He didn't speak like this world
speaks today. You know, you talk to people
today and you've got your way and the other one's got their
way and we all got our own way and everybody's right, nobody's
wrong. Paul spoke dogmatically and he
said none of man's excuses are valid. None of man's excuses
will hold up. He said, if our gospel be veiled,
the real problem is it's veiled to them that are lost. They're lost. Don't paint it. with a pretty color and try to
paint it up, make it something it's not. If men do not believe
our gospel, if our gospel is hid from men, it's because they're
lost. And their minds, he said, are
blinded. And here's even a greater problem
than that. The gospel that men question
and the gospel that men refute and say there's a problem with
it is the only remedy for their problem. He said the only remedy
and this is what the God of this world is trying to prevent is
that Christ might shine unto them. that the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ might shine unto them. That's the only cure. That's the only cure. So I declare
this morning the same to you as Paul does, and I declare this
on the authority of God's Word. I know what I'm saying. I know
what I'm declaring is absolutely true. If our gospel is hidden, If it's
veiled, it is veiled to them that are lost, whose minds are
blinded, and their only hope is that Christ shine unto them
through this very gospel we preach. That's their only hope. Now first
of all, plainly, clearly, I want to declare that if our gospel
is veiled, It is because the sinner is lost. There is not
a problem with the gospel. The problem is not with the gospel.
It's the sinner. The sinner is lost. He says there,
verse 3, if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. Now, if anybody here has a question
about, am I lost? Am I lost? The way to know is
simple. It's very simple. Do you believe
on Christ? Are you ashamed to confess Christ
publicly? The Christ of this Bible, the
one that God chose before the foundation of the world and chose
to give Him all preeminence in the salvation of His people,
the one that God chose will have all the glory and that every
knee will bow to and every tongue will confess that He worked all
the works to save His people. I'm talking about this Christ
who is all and in all His people. This one who is the author and
the finisher. That means He is the beginning
and the end and all points in between of the salvation of His
people. The Christ who says salvation
is not of your works and not of my works. Nothing we can do
at any point can contribute or add to what He's accomplished.
I'm talking about the Christ of the Bible, God's own beloved
Son, whom God says, hear. God says, hear Him. God says,
we're not interested in hearing you. We're not interested in
hearing me. God says, hear Him. Is this Christ
your God? Is He your Savior? Is He your
Redeemer? Are you ashamed to confess Him
publicly before men, and to unite with His people, and to renounce
everything else as dung? Whatever it was that you once
were in, whatever it was you once thought was life, If it
was worth walking away from and renouncing, it's what's happening
when you walk away from it, you renounce it. And if it's worth
walking away from and renouncing it, then it's worth counting
as nothing but dung. That's what renouncing something
is. That's what Paul meant when he
said, we've renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. It's what
he meant when he said, all that former hope that I had before
God saved me, now I count it all done. And for this Christ alone. If
you can say, no. No, I don't believe. I don't believe you're Christ.
I don't believe the Christ that you're preaching. I don't believe
the Christ of that Bible. Then the problem is, you are
lost. That's the problem. If our gospel
be veiled, it's veiled to them who are lost. And I want to tell
you something now. To be lost is a dire situation. It's the baddest spot you can
be in to be lost. The word here means to be out
of Christ the way. To be entirely out of Christ
the way. It means to be ruined. It means
to be destroyed. It means to be perishing. This is how Paul described it
in Ephesians 4.18. He said, it's having the understanding
darkened. You'll see men who are wise in
this world, very brilliant in this world, and achieve great
things in this world, who have no understanding of God and no
desire to understand God. And you think, why is that? The
understanding is darkened. Spiritual understanding is lost. It's gone. And it's to be alienated
from the life of God. Think about that. Alienated from
the life of God. It's to be ignorant within. It's through the ignorance within
them, Paul said. It's to be ignorant. Ignorant
of who God is. Ignorant of how God saved. Ignorant
of your own self and your need of Christ. Ignorant. And it says,
because of the blindness of their heart. Blind. In total darkness. He described
it in Colossians 1.21 as being enemies in your mind by wicked
works. Enemies of God in the mind so
that the mind is totally corrupted. Turn with me to John chapter
3. John chapter 3. Mark John 3. I think I'm going
to come back here a little later. John 3. Now when a person is lost, that's
a state in which it's entirely helpless to get yourself out
of. When you're lost, if you can
find your way out, you weren't lost. To be lost is a state that
you can't get out of. You can't do anything to get
out of that state. You're lost. A man who's lost
can't make himself otherwise. A man who's lost is blind and
he can't see. He's lost the way to God. That way is gone. He's lost all
understanding of God. He's lost everything that has
to do with God. He's lost it. I remember when
I was a teenager, And we got a call one night, and there was
a little boy that lived across the highway from us, was a little
country road. And up that road, there was a
family that lived there. And this little boy had wandered
off from the house. And where he wandered off to
was an area of woods, a wooded area that was probably a good
1,000 acres back in there where he wandered off to. all kinds of law officers out
there and game wardens and everybody was there trying to find this
little boy. And people were going around trying to block off all
the roads, you know, on each side and everybody was honking
horns and, you know, trying to find this child. He was a little
child, about 7 or 8 years old. And they searched for this little
boy until 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning before they found him.
He was lost. That little boy was lost. Physically
lost. He could not find his way out. He did what was the smartest
thing to do. He finally just sat down and
quit moving. And somebody found him. That's
lost. When you can't find your way
out, you're lost. And when you're lost, you are
under the wrath of God. When you're lost spiritually,
you're under the wrath of God. If anything causes you to die
today in that state, you will come into God's presence under
the wrath of God. Listen to this. John 3.18. This is Christ speaking. He said,
He that believeth on Christ is not condemned. But he that believeth
not is condemned already. You see, the man that doesn't
believe Christ is not waiting to be condemned, he's condemned
now. Listen, because he hath not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Look down at verse
36. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall
not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Paul said, knowing the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men. I'm trying to preach to you today
with a sense of urgency because this is not just come in and
listen to a well-organized sermon and go home and, well, we did
that today. This is life or death we're talking
about. This is urgent what we're talking
about here. It's sad to think about this.
It's terrifying to think about this. When I preach, there's
people to whom I'm speaking who do not know God. And the worst
thing about being lost is to be lost and not know you're lost. To be religious and lost, that's
the worst of all. I can't make you know you're
lost. You can't make you know you're lost. God's the only one
that can make you know you're lost. And that's what it's going
to take. We're not trying to get sinners
found. We're trying to get sinners lost.
Before you can ever be found, you've got to be lost. Before
we'll ever need a Savior, we've got to be brought to see we're
sinners. This is what has to happen first. We have to be made
to see we're helpless and cannot save ourselves. We need a righteousness
we can't work out. We need to be holy and we can't
work that out. We need someone else to save
us because we cannot save ourselves. We've got to be made to see we're
lost. And have you ever been lost physically? You know, when you're on a trip
or out in the woods like I was talking about. You know the bad
thing about being lost? You've all experienced this if
you've been turned around out in the middle of nowhere. Pride
just won't hardly let you confess your loss. Pride will not let
you stop and ask somebody and say, I'm lost. I don't know where
I'm at. Well, that's nothing. That pride is nothing compared
to the pride involved with a man confessing he's spiritually lost. that he does not know God. I've
never in 47 years, I've never spoken to anybody and have them
tell me, I'm lost, I don't know God. I've never heard anybody
say that. Everybody will tell you everything they think they know
about God. But you've never run into anybody that just says,
I'm lost, I don't know God. Can you confess? You're lost.
Can you say I'm lost? I don't know God. I'm sitting
here today and don't know God. Can you confess that? I'm lost. If God's made you confess you're
lost, I've got some good news for you. Scripture says the Son
of Man has come to seek and to save them which are lost. If
you're not lost, I've got no good news for you. If you're
lost, I got good news for you, Christ came to save the lost.
But He didn't come to save righteous folks who know everything. He
just didn't. He came to save the lost. Well,
to make matters worse than just being lost, those who do not
believe the gospel are blinded. He says in verse 4, "...in whom
the God of this age has blinded the minds of them which believe
not." Now you just imagine a man that's blind from birth and he's
speaking with you and he's telling you that he doesn't believe there's
a sun up in the sky. You've had sight all your life
and this man's telling you, I don't believe there's a sun in the
sky. I don't believe it. I don't believe that there's
a sun in the sky and that's what controls the tides and controls
the seasons and all that. I don't believe that. Well, you
would know. Since you have sight, you would
know. The problem's not with the sun
in the sky. You see the sun in the sky. You
know there's a sun in the sky. You would know the problem is
this man's blind. He's blind. He can't see. Well, a man who's blind spiritually
has no authority whatsoever to say a word about the truth of
God. Because he's blind. He don't
know. And when you hear men speak, you know, it's not that you're
unjustly judging somebody. If you have spiritual discernment
and you hear somebody say, down is up and up is down, you know
that person is blind. If it's not according to this
Word, you know, they don't know the truth. And that person that's
blind has no... they have no right to even be
saying anything about God. They don't know Him. They don't
know it. The problem is not the gospel,
the problem is within the sinner. Listen to this. In whom? It's
within. In whom the God of this age hath
blinded the minds of them that believe not. All spiritual understanding
is lost in the fall and the devil attempts to keep it that way
in sinners. We lost, this didn't come about
because the devil blinded us, it came about because we fell
in Adam, that we're lost and blind, but the devil wants to
keep it that way. He wants to keep you blinded.
Now some think God here in this text ought to be capitalized.
Some think that this is speaking of the true and living God. Now
let me tell you this, the true and living God is indeed the
God of this world. He is indeed the God of the whole
universe. And if the devil blinds the minds
of men, it's only because the God of heaven and earth permitted
him to do so. The scripture says he goes about
not seeking whom he can devour, he goes about seeking whom he
may devour, whom he has permission to devour. Remember God said
to Job, said to the devil, have you considered my servant Job?
It was God who permitted him and he told him how far he could
go. He said, but you can't touch him. And then he told them, now
you can touch him, but you can't kill him. So the devil can do
nothing but what God permits. And indeed, God does blind sinners
in reprobation. Paul earlier had spoken about
the children of Israel not believing on Christ, and he said in chapter
3, they were blinded. And look over at John 12, 39
with me just a minute. The children of Israel were blinded.
And it was God that blinded them. John 12 verse 39. The true God
blinded them. Speaking here about them not
believing on Christ, it says in verse 37, John 12, 37, "...though
He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed
not on Him, that the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled,
which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? To whom
is the arm of the Lord revealed?" That's Isaiah 53. But now listen,
he quotes another verse, "...therefore they could not believe Because
that Isaiah said again, "...He hath blinded their eyes and hardened
their heart, that they should not see with their eyes, nor
understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should
heal them." These things said Isaiah when he saw His glory
and spake of Him. That was in Isaiah chapter 6.
Brother Eric was talking about when Isaiah saw the glory of
the Lord. And if you read that chapter,
in the same chapter, he said, go forth and preach this gospel. And the prophet said, how long?
And he said, till they be blinded, till they be hardened. And God
did that. God did that. God will blind
a man who goes on in his unbelief and rebellion against God. God
will make it so he can't believe the Lord. If this is speaking of the devil,
it's the only place he's called the god of this world. It's the
only place. The other place he's called the
prince of the world. The prince of the world. And
I'll be honest with you, in this text it's a little difficult
seeing what he wrote in chapter 3 about Israel being blinded
and knowing what I just read to you from Isaiah, that God
did blind the children of Israel. It's hard to know here if Paul
is declaring the consequences of rejecting the gospel, which
is being blinded in reprobation, or if he's declaring here the
cause of not believing, which is to be blinded by the devil. But we do know this. It may be
that he's speaking of both, because both are true. But we do know
this. We come into this world. Look
at Ephesians 2. This is how we come into this
world. Me, you, and everybody born of
Adam. Right here. We come blinded.
With our minds blinded. And the devil keeps us blinded.
Look here, Ephesians 2, 2. In time past, you walked according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air. the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others. We all come into this
world while dead in our sins, and the devil is our shepherd."
The prince of the power of the air is our shepherd. We're slaves
to him. And all in the world he has to
do is appeal to our fleshly lust, our fleshly desire, and our fleshly
mind. And open up occasions for us
to do what is the bent of our heart to do by nature. That's
all he's got to do to keep us blinded. But here's the good
news. Here's the good news. Because
God's sheep were flesh, because we were flesh and blood. Scripture
says Christ took part of the same. That through death, through
going to the cross and dying and paying all the debt His people
owe and justifying His people and making us righteous, through
death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that
is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were
all their lifetime subject to His bondage. You see, the devil
is called the accuser of the brethren. All he wants to do
is go around pointing the finger and blaming somebody else. You
ever hear of anybody doing that? Pointing the finger and it's
always somebody else's fault? This generation that we live
in is a bunch of finger pointing, cast the blame on somebody else.
That's the devil's work. That's what the devil is all
about. Blaming and accusing others. And he would stand before God
blaming and accusing God's people. But now he has nothing to blame
and accuse God's saints with. Because Christ went to the cross
and put our sins away. and He made us righteous in Him.
So that God says now, who shall lay anything to the charge of
mine elect? It's God Himself that justified.
Can you imagine the devil coming before God who actually is the
one who justified His people and making an accusation against
His people? God says, I justified them. You have nothing to accuse
them of. I justified them. And so, Christ
has delivered all His people. And so now, what's happening
is, Christ is sending this gospel forth. Let me show you why. Go
to Acts 26. I'll show you why He's sending
the gospel forth. Right here. Acts 26, verse 18.
26, 18. He's sending the gospel forth. Verse 18, He says, "...to open
their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from
the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness
of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by
faith that is in Me." You know, when I heard that, I can remember
being lost and hearing that preached. And I can remember thinking,
I'm not lost. I'm not lost. Nobody is going
to open my eyes and turn me from Satan to God. I don't need that. And over a course of time, I
began to hear the gospel. And I began to really hear it.
And I began to realize, I am lost. I'm lost. I don't know God. And everything
that you just read right there, God did for me through this message.
Sure did. Through the gospel, He did this.
I'd go home, and man, I'd pour over these scriptures. After
hearing this message preached, I'd pour over these scriptures.
And I never had an interest in looking at the gospel before.
And I'd start seeking because I got to find life. I got to
find where life is. And the passages I used to go
to and read and think this is what I'm supposed to be doing
and not doing so I can have life. I began to read those passages
of scriptures and hear what they really said. You have not done
this. You're dead. You're a sinner.
You're guilty. And that's all I could find.
That's all I could get the book to say to me. I'm guilty. What
was happening? God was working. And I'd go back
and hear the message preached again, and all I could hear was,
You're guilty. You're guilty. There wasn't no
good news for me. I could hear nothing but, You're
guilty. And when I got... I was so lost that I thought,
There's no hope for me. Then I began to see Christ. And
I began to hear the good news. And I began to believe God. He
really has put my sin away. And then I began to get just
as far down and as sad as I was, I began to go the other way being
happy for what He'd done for me. You see, I can't make that
happen. I got people I love dearly sitting
right here that I'd make that happen if I could. But God can. God can. And you know what we
need? You know when you're blind. You
know what you need? You need light. You remember that woman
who lost the coin? She lost the coin in the Lord's
parable. You know the first thing she called for? She called for
light. If you have light, there won't
be darkness. They can't coexist. If you have
light, you won't have darkness. That's what we need. We need
light. Now here's the next thing, look. The gospel we preach is
the light we need. The gospel is the light we need.
If our gospel be hid, if our light is hid from anybody, it's
because they're blind, he said. Lest the light. Look, verse 4. Lest the light. of the glorious
gospel of Christ, or as some translations have it, or the
gospel of the glory of Christ, the light of the gospel of the
glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Paul said, How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be
rather glorious? You know, I've told you the word
glorious. If you want to just understand a simple definition
of it, just look at the first three letters. G-L-O. Glow. Glorious is light. Glorious. Light. Just have light. Paul
said he called it in 1 Timothy 1.11, the glorious gospel of
the blessed God. The glorious gospel. Is my gospel,
what I'm preaching, is this glorious to you? There's some people here
saying, yes, it's glorious to me. If it's not glorious to you,
our text is saying it's because you're blind. It's because you're
blind. But this is what we need. This
is the light because Christ is the light. He's the light of
the gospel we preach. Christ is. Go to Isaiah 42 verse
6. This is what the Lord prophesied. He said this of Christ right
here. Isaiah 42. If you want to see that he's
talking about Christ, verse 1 of that chapter says, Behold my
servant whom I uphold, mine elect, and whom my soul delighteth.
I put my spirit upon him, he'll bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
This is Christ. Verse 3, A bruised reed shall
he not break, the smoking flax shall he not quench. We know
that speaks of Christ. The New Testament tells us this
is Christ he's talking about. Now look at verse 6. I the Lord
have called thee in righteousness and will hold thine hand and
will keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people
for a light of the Gentiles. Who's the Gentiles? Everybody
in this room is a Gentile. And I hope there's some elect
Gentiles in this room. That's who he's sending the light
to. Look here. A light of the Gentiles to open
the blind eyes. to bring out the prisoners from
the prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison
house. You know what the prison house
is? It's our flesh. It's our sin nature. That's the
prison house. And He's going to bring His people
out of that prison house. He gives His redeemed light by
giving us the gospel in spirit and in truth. If you just hear
me preaching right here today, that's not going to give you
this light I'm talking about in the heart. But when He speaks,
He gives you the light in the heart. He says there in our text,
by shining unto us. By shining unto us. And remember,
in John 17, 22, the Lord said, He's praying to the Father, and
He said, The glory which thou gavest Me, I have given them. that they may be one even as
we are one? He is saying the light you gave
to me, I have given to them. The glory you gave me, I have
given them. And He says that they may be
one even as we are one. This glory He is talking about,
this light He is talking about, makes us one with Christ and
one with God in Christ and one with one another. That must be
some light. That must be some glory. What
is it? It's right here in our text.
It's the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image
of God shining into our heart. That's what he's talking about.
The gospel is Christ. The gospel is Christ. The light
is Christ. The gospel we preach is glorious
light because the author of it and the subject of it is glorious
light. That's Christ. The gospel we
preach is glorious because the grace and all the promises that
God gives through this Word are in Christ and by Christ and through
Christ. Everything you speak. He is the
Word, capital W-O-R-D. And this Gospel is the Word we
preach, little w-o-r-d. But together, Christ, through
the Gospel, is the incorruptible seed that makes you to be born
again, makes you to have life. And Christ, the glory of God,
He is the express image of God. He said there, Christ who is
the image of God. John said the Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory. We saw His glory. The glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. God came down. God in human flesh. Christ said,
if you've seen Me, you have seen the Father. If you've seen Me,
you have seen the Father. God spoke in time past in all
different kind of manners, and He spoke through the prophets,
but He hasn't in these last days spoken to us by His Son. God
has come, the express image of God. But like I said, it's not
merely enough to hear the preacher preach, or hear the Word read,
or read the Word. You've got to have Christ speak
to you. You've got to have the Holy Spirit of God come into
your heart. Why is that a must? John 3.19. Look there. Go back
there with me. John 3.19. Here's why it's a
must. Christ tells us plainly. This
is what He was telling Nicodemus. This is why we've got to be born
again. This is the condemnation, John 3, 19. This is the condemnation. Light is coming to the world.
Light has come and men love darkness rather than light because their
deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil
hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds
should be reproved. What is it that makes us... I
do this in my old flesh, and you do it in your old flesh,
every believer here does, and folks here that don't have anything
but flesh, you do this. What is it that makes you, when
you're in conversation with people, and you're talking about everything
under the sun, and you're just carrying on a conversation and
talking, and then somebody starts talking about God. And they start
talking about Christ. And they start talking about
these kinds... What is it that makes the circle of people get
quiet? What is it that makes you just
kind of... Let's change the subject and
talk about something else. The natural man hates the light.
He doesn't want to come to the light. He doesn't want to have
anything to do with the light. At all. So that's why we've got
to be born of God. Look, verse 21, But he that doeth
truth cometh through the light, that his deeds may be made manifest
that they are wrought in God. Where the light never shines.
A man goes on in his rebellion, he may take on religion, he may,
you know, get moral and he may put away some things in his life
and go to church every day that the doors open. But he's going
on in the same hardness of his heart, the same blindness, and
when he hears the truth, it'll start tearing his refuge down.
And when a man's refuge is torn down, he'll say, No, God! And he'll find an excuse, but
he ain't going to have his refuge torn down. But when the light
shines, when God shines the light, the light of Christ comes into
the heart, that's when man knows God. That's when for the first
time he knows himself as a sinner and he knows God. And when he
shines that light, he makes you open. He makes you come, he said
there, and he makes your deeds manifest. You will come for the
first time into the light with your dirty, filthy deeds of all
your sinful flesh, and for the first time you will confess,
I'm nothing but a sinner. All I've ever done is sin. All
I am is sin. I've never thought a good thought.
I've never done a good deed. That's what he means when he
says, But he that doeth truth comes to the light that his deeds
may be made manifest. You'll come and your deeds will
be out in the open. You'll confess, I'm a sinner, that's all I am.
And you'll confess that all of your righteous deeds, all of
your holy deeds are wrought by God. All the works were by you
saved, God did it. That's coming to the light. That's
coming to the light. That's what He'll do. He'll make
you behold Christ. And when He makes you behold
Christ, something miraculous happens. There's a transformation
that takes place. Go back to 2 Corinthians 3, verse
16. He said there, Christ is the
image of God. And this light that shines, this
is the image of God shining into our hearts. And what happens
when that happens? Verse 16. He said, when the heart
shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Look at
verse 18. We all with open face beholding
as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same
image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord. You put
on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and
holiness. And let me tell you something
about putting on the new man. You don't do a thing to put on the
new man. It's not like putting on a shirt. When you behold Christ
in spirit and in truth, you put on this new man. This new man
that's created in righteousness and true holiness. That image
of Christ. If you're changed into the same
image, Who is Christ? He is righteous and holy. He
says there is a new man changed into the same image by the Spirit
of the Lord. When you behold Christ our wisdom,
what happens? Colossians he said, you put on
the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image
of Him that created him. It's what Paul called, we have
the mind of Christ. Why? I behold Christ as my wisdom. And when you do that, you'll
have the mind of Christ. You'll think like Christ thinks.
You'll see things the way Christ says they are. You'll bow to
God's Word. You might not know all doctrine,
but when you come to it, having Christ for your wisdom, you'll
bow and say, that's right. I see it. That's right. Christ
said it. That's all I need to know. And
you'll bow because you're renewed in knowledge after the image
of Him that created this new man. And then when you behold
Christ, you're righteousness. You know what happens? Romans
8 says the Spirit within us is righteous because of life. Life and righteousness are the
same. I mean, if you've got righteousness,
you've got life. If you've got life, you've got righteousness.
And that spirit's life, there's a new image there now created.
When you behold Christ, you're made to repent and believe. Not
until then. What is the actual giving of
faith? What is the actual granting of repentance? Seeing Christ.
Listen, they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and
they shall mourn for him as one that mourns for his own son,
his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that's
in bitterness for his firstborn. That's faith and repentance.
When you made to behold Christ, you'll mourn your sin. that caused
Him to have to go to the cross and lay down His life for you.
And you'll be in bitterness because of it. And at the same time,
you'll mourn for Him, to be found in Him and to be saved by Him.
This is the giving of faith and repentance is to see Christ.
And then when you behold Christ as your sanctification, that's
what purifies your heart. He spoke of being sanctified by faith that
is in me. You behold Christ and that's
the purifying of the heart, to behold Him as your holiness. You behold Christ to His love.
What happens when you behold Christ to His love? In truth,
when you see that love wouldn't just sweep your sin under the
rug. Love is a righteous and a holy love that had to come
and took your sin, and bore your curse, and bore your judgment,
and satisfied God. And you see that it's a righteous
and holy love that will never forsake you, never leave, and
will always save His people. When you behold that love, you're
created in the same image. You have a loving heart. Listen,
love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth
God. That when you behold that image,
he said, and by the Spirit of the Lord you're changed into
that image. We go through the Scriptures
and you see the love of Christ when you behold Christ and the
Spirit blesses it to your heart. That's what's going to make love
strong in your heart. and make you be constrained by
love, and make you overlook the faults of your brethren, and
bear with one another's burdens, and bear with one another's sins
and errors and those things. But if that love is not there, you take on the Pharisee. That
love, that love. What I'm saying to you is when
you behold Christ who is our propitiation, who mercifully
propitiated God on our behalf, you know what that will do? It
will change you into that image. It will make you merciful. When
you behold Christ the peacemaker who made peace between God and
His people, it will change the heart into that image. It will
make you a peacemaker. Instead of wanting to be contentious
and fight and quarrel, you want peace. When you behold Christ
who humbled Himself and was made lower than the lowest of any
on this earth for God and for His people. You know what beholding
the meek will make you do? It will change you into that
image. It will make you meek in your heart. when you behold Christ's long-suffering,
how long that God was long-suffering to you, and how long He waited
in all your rebellion, and by His goodness brought you to repentance.
You know what it will do? It will change your heart in
that image. It will make you long-suffering with your brethren. I believe I see how little I
know now, and how I see through a glass darkly, And I believe
I see how long it took for God to teach me anything at all.
So I believe when I see my brother in error, you know what I believe
I'll do? I believe I'll be long-suffering with him. Where did you get that? Did you get that out of the law?
No, I got that looking at Christ. Got that looking at Christ. And
he continues this work. from the day He calls you through
this gospel, through the Holy Spirit shining into your heart.
Paul said, All things that are reproved are made manifest by
the light. For whatsoever does not make
manifest is light. He says to you in the gospel,
Awake thou that sleepest, and Christ will give you light. And
he keeps doing this through the Gospel. This is how you grow
as a child of God in that inward man is by constantly seeing Christ. Whatever image it is you need
to be grown into, that's what He'll show you. His love, His
long-suffering, His goodness, His mercy, you'll be made that
by looking at Him. So always remember this when
you're rebuked by the gospel. I haven't been eavesdropping.
I don't have a bug in your house or on your phone. I don't know
what's going on. God does though. He'll make you think, man, the
preacher's been hiding out by my back door. Oh, listen to me now. I'm going
to stop. I've gone too long here. But listen to me. Can you confess
you're blind? Can you confess you're lost?
I'll tell you what, even as believers, we're still blind and lost, comparatively
speaking. We still need sight, don't we?
I still want to be found, but I want to be found in Him. Isn't
that what Paul said? And we continually confess, Lord,
help my unbelief. Show me You. I want to see You
more clearly. But the man who's self-righteous
and self-taught, he made his own bifocals and he's given himself
LASIK surgery so he can see now on his own. This is what Christ
said, For judgment I'm coming to this world that they which
see not might see, and they which see might be made blind. He said,
if you were blind, you should have no sin, but now you say
we see, therefore your sin remaineth. The point is, brethren, Christ
didn't come to call the righteous. He didn't come to call the seeing
and the ones that confound ourselves. He came to save the lost and
the undone and the blind. And we constantly say we need
Him to save. Jesus spake and He said, I am
the light of the world, and he that follows Me shall not walk
in darkness, he shall have the light of life. I'm telling you,
brethren, Christ is all. That's our message. Christ is
all. If you have Christ, you have
everything you need to come into God's presence. You need righteousness? Christ is all. You need holiness?
Christ is all. You need to be redeemed from
the curse of the law? Christ is all. You need to be
taught the truth? Christ is all. You need to know
the way to God? Christ is all. You need to have
light? Christ is all. You need to be
holy? Christ is all. Whatever it is
you need, Christ is all. That's the message. Plainly,
boldly, clearly we try to speak it. I remember hearing brother
Henry Mahan preach one time. He'd been preaching for 40 years
at that time. And it was always so clear when
he'd preach the gospel. To this day I love listening
to him preach because it's just clear. I can understand it. And
he got out of the pulpit and got in the car and we were going
over to Brother Marvin's house and he asked Sister Doris, was
the message clear? First word out of his mouth.
Could you understand what I was saying? See, I want you to hear
this. And I pray God give you a heart.
Nothing else matters. Nothing else in this life matters
but having Christ. That's it. That's it. If you
pass through this life and you miss Christ, you've missed it
all. I pray He gives you that light now to fall at His feet,
lay hold of Him and confess Him and join with His people and
unite with Him. This is how He's going to keep
saving, through this Word right here. Alright, let's stand together. Our great God and our Savior,
we're thankful that You chose to give Your Son all the
glory and salvation. We're thankful, Lord, that You
have come and brought the gospel in our midst and taught us this
message. Lord, make us to be like Gideon's
army. Make us to just have a trumpet
in one hand this earthen pitcher with that candle in it, shining
forth the gospel. And save, Lord, save Your people. Save us, grow us, teach us, approve
us, and save Your people. Make this light shine into their
hearts. And Lord, we thank you that you've
done that. We thank you that you continue
to do it. We trust, Lord. There is no shadow of a doubt
that you will teach your people. You'll keep your people. Forgive
us, Lord, our sins. Forgive us where we doubt you.
And keep us ever, ever, ever at your feet. Increase our love.
Give us clear views of Christ that our love might increase.
Make us see Him, Lord, and increase us however we need it, however
we need to be increased. Increase us with this view of
Christ. We ask it in His precious, precious
name. Amen.