Let us turn to God's word once
again. A text is found in the portion
of scripture that we read in the 2nd epistle of Paul to the
Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 6. 2nd Corinthians 4 verse 6
For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. In 2 Corinthians
chapter 4 verse 6. In chapter 3 we see how the apostle
is making a contrast between the law and the gospel and of
course Paul himself although schooled at the feet of Emmanuel
and a Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee, a man who once made
his boast in the law, considering himself to be blameless, yet
by the grace of God this man became a minister of the Gospel. He was delivered from all the
condemning power of God's holy law. And he makes the point there
in chapter 3 that his ministry concerned the gospel of Christ
in verse 6, who also hath made us able ministers, he says, of
the New Testament, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For
the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. And then again,
At verse 12 he says, seeing then that we have such hope, we use
great plainness of speech. How he sought to exercise that
ministry in a faithful fashion, and that in spite of much opposition,
and opposition often from those who were legalists, those who
opposed the emphasis of his ministry which so much concentrated upon
the freeness of the grace of God in salvation and in Corinth
we know that there were many false teachers who came in and
stole the hearts of the people but Paul opposes these wicked
men and exposes their erroneous teaching how faithful he was,
how his speech was plain and straightforward. He says in chapter
11, and there in verses 5 and 6, I suppose I was not a wit
behind the very chiefest apostles, but though I have eruded in speech,
yet not in knowledge, but we have been throughly made manifest
among you in all things he held back nothing of the truth because
here was a man who had experienced that truth of God in the gospel
as he says here in our text he had known something of that gracious
enshining of the gospel how that word had come into his very soul
and he had known then a great deliverance for God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness had shined in our hearts he says
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. By that gracious work of the
Holy Ghost within his own heart then he had come to that saving
knowledge. He thought he knew God, he thought
he was the servant of God when he was a self-righteous Pharisee
and yet in reality he knew nothing of that true God until He was
visited by the Blessed Spirit of Christ, arrested there at
the very gate of Damascus. And here in the text, as we turn
to it this morning, we see how he compares God's work in two
areas. God's work in the realm of creation
and God's work in the realm of conversion. God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, he says. That's the work of creation,
is it not? That shines in our hearts to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. That is that greater work of
God wherein he is pleased to work salvation in the soul of
the sinner. And I want us simply to follow
that twofold division. First of all to look at God's
work in creation and then God's work in conversion. God's work in creation spoken
of here then at the beginning of the text. God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness. Now Paul is speaking of himself
and speaking of his own ministry, there's no disputing that, he's
having to answer those who would come amongst the Corinthians
as false teachers, as we said, those legalists who would come
as preachers of the law and wanted these gentile believers to submit
to the Lord of Moses as well as to believe the gospel of Christ
And as he answers these men he does speak of himself and he
speaks of his own ministry. Here in the opening verses of
the chapter he says, Therefore, seeing we have this ministry,
as we have received mercy, we faint not, but have renounced
the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor
handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves, to every man's conscience in the sight
of God. He speaks of his own ministry
but he recognises throughout that his own preaching is not
the efficient cause of any coming to experience salvation. It is
not the efficient cause of any coming to that saving knowledge
of God. What Paul's ministry is, is simply
the instrumental means that God is pleased to employ with regards
to conveying this message onto others. It is interesting, is it not,
that as we consider God's work in creation, we see that God
acts immediately. God only is the efficient cause
of life. We see it of course in the account
that we have in the chapter of scripture there in Genesis chapter
1, all things are called into being simply by the word of God. In Genesis 1 verse 3 God says,
let there be light. And there was light. God who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness, we read here
at the beginning of our text. The psalmist reminds us by the
word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them
by the breath of his mouth. He spoke and it was done. He
commanded and it stood fast. This is the way in which God
works. He acts in an immediate fashion and he reveals himself
as that one who is the only author of life who calls all things
into being. And what Paul is saying here
in the text is that as in creation so also in conversion God alone
is the efficient cause of life. He might employ instruments to
convey that message as he not instituted himself the office
of the ministry, and that's what Paul was, a minister of the New
Testament, as he says there in chapter 3. But God only is the
efficient cause of salvation. We know from what Paul says elsewhere
in this epistle that conversion is in fact likened to a new work
of creation. In chapter 5 and verse 17, therefore,
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature or a new creation. All things are passed away, all
things are become now. It is interesting and it is instructive
to consider the various ways in which God is pleased to accomplish
his works. He doesn't always act in that
immediate and direct fashion. When we think of the scriptures,
for example, how does God seem fit to give to us his words,
to grant us his special revelation of himself? Does he not use human
instruments in giving us the Bible? We are told, are we not, that
the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but
holy men of God, spake as they were moved by the Spirit of God. That's what we're told there
in the opening chapter of Peter's second epistle. God gave his
words by those human instruments. He raised up the prophets in
the Old Testament and he inspired them and they spake his words
time and again. We have it of course in the language
that they employ. As they declare the message,
what do they say? Thus saith the Lord. They are
not speaking their own words, those prophets. They are speaking
the words of God. Those holy men were moved. And remember the strength of
these verb that he uses, we've remarked on it on previous occasions
there in 2 Peter 1.21 they were moved, they were borne along,
they were carried along by the Holy Ghost, the same word as
we find in Acts 27 where we read of Paul being shiffered as he
makes that journey to Rome and that great wind erupted it comes
and causes havoc and the mariners cannot control the ship at all
and they have to simply commit the vessel to the elements and
we're told how they let that ship drive they let it drive,
it was driven they had no control over the vessel it was simply
driven along by the wind and by the waves and it's the same
verb used there in Acts 27 that we find Peter using in that verse
that we've quoted from 2 Peter 1.27. Those holy men, they spake
as they were driven along, borne along, controlled only by the
Holy Spirit in those things that they were saying. This is how
God has given his word then. Different human authors are responsible
for the books of Scripture. The first five books we refer
to as the books of Moses. We have the various writings
of the prophets, the different prophets. We have the book of
Psalms principally written by David, although others of course
wrote some of the Psalms. But all is the word of God and
not the word of man. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God. It's the very breath of God,
it's the breathings of God, it's the words of God. This is the
way in which God works and at times he is pleased to make use
of human instruments. And not only is that the case
with regards to the Bible, the word of God that we have in our
hands today, but God also is pleased to use human instruments
in the preaching of the gospel. God himself has instituted the
office of the ministry. How shall they hear without a
preacher? asks Paul in Romans chapter 10. How is the message to be heard?
God has given the office of preaching. Again Paul says in the opening
chapter of 1 Corinthians, he pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Men consider it folly,
not so much the act of preaching that they look upon as foolishness,
it's the content of the message that's being spoken of there
in 1 Corinthians 1. the foolishness of the message
preached but that message has to be proclaimed and God is pleased
to own the ministry because God often works, does he not, through
the preaching of his word not all are necessarily converted
onto the preached word but I'm sure that each and all of us
who know anything of the grace of God known those times when
we have felt that the Lord himself has been very much present under
the preaching and we felt that the Lord himself has come, has
drawn near and has spoken to us by the instrument of those
servants that he raises up to proclaim the message of salvation. God does in All his works at
times see fit to make use then of human instruments, be it in
giving us the Word of God, be it in the proclamation of the
Word of God. But when he comes to that great
work of salvation, where there is to be that application of
the truth of the Gospel, where there is to be that mighty quickening
in the soul of the sinner, that regeneration, that new birth.
God always works immediately and directly in the soul of the
sinner. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
proclaims it, does he not? In John chapter 3, verily, verily,
I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of heaven. how the Lord prefixes that statement
with the double verb, the truth of it, you see. Truly, truly,
here is that that cannot be gainsaid. If any would see the kingdom
of heaven, if any man would enter into that kingdom, he must be
born again. And as I'm sure many of you are
aware, there in John 3 verse 3, The margin tells us that the
alternative reading is to be born from above. Or to be born
again is to be born from above. To be born of God. He goes on doth the Lord in the
course of that chapter as he discourses with Nicodemus to
speak of the spirit and the sovereignty of the spirit. The wind bloweth
where it listeth, and thou hearest the sounds thereof, but canst
not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth. So is every
one that is born of the Spirit. Those circuits of the wind, those
mysterious sovereign movings of the Spirit, that's what the
Lord is speaking of. It is then a great work of God
when The sinner is born again. It's an immediate one. And we speak not only of the
spirit's work in regeneration, but there's a spirit's work also
in its actual calling. When the gospel is preached,
there is, in a sense, that general call. All in the congregation
are spoken to, all are addressed in a general sense. But then,
under the preaching, doesn't the Spirit come and apply the
words quite specifically to certain individuals? He comes to some
then as the saver of life unto life, and He doesn't come as
the saver of life unto life to all, to others, alas, He comes
as the saver of death unto death. How discriminating, you see,
God is under the ministry of the Word. But where the Gospel
comes as that sabre of life unto life, there is an effectual work.
There is an effectual call of the Spirit. The person is made
a willing subject to the Lord Jesus Christ, a willing follower
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even at the promise that is given
to Christ in Psalm 110, thy people shall be willing in the day of
thy power There is the promise that is given to Christ in terms
of the everlasting covenant. But look at what is actually
said there in that verse. Psalm 110 and verse 3. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. In the beauties of holiness from
the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth. The people who are willing in
the day of Christ's power, and he goes on to speak of the beauties
of holiness from the womb of the morning. Now is there not
here some allusion to that great work of creation? There's a connection there between
effectual calling, the people made We read in the day of Christ
power and the work of creation, the womb of the morning, and
we see it when we compare scripture with scripture. If we turn back
further to the words that we have of Elihu in Psalm 38, and
there at verse 8, We have creation as it were issuing
forth out of the womb. Look at the context. It's not so much Elijah, it's
the Lord himself answering Job here in chapter 38. And what
does God say? Where was thou, verse 4, where
was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth, declared if thou
hast understanding, who hath laid the measures thereof, if
thou knowest, Uru has stretched the line upon it, whereupon are
the foundations thereof fastened? Uru laid the cornerstone thereof,
when the morning stars sank together and all the sons of God shouted
for joy. Uru shut up the sea with doors
when it broke forth, as if it had issued out of the world. Oh, the range of terminology
is so similar to what we have in the third verse of Psalm 110,
the womb of the morning, creation of morning. And there in the
Psalm links to that great work, that effectual work of God, when
He is pleased to call the sinner to Himself. God uses instruments. He has used instruments with
regards to giving us the Bible. Those holy men, they spoke as
they were moved, they were God's instruments. God uses instruments
in the preaching of the Gospel, in the proclamation of His message
of salvation. But the actual application, it
is that great work of God. It's like the work that God performed
when He created all things. And He created all things out
of nothing. Through faith we understand that
the worlds were made so that things which are seen were not
made of things which do appear. God simply spoke and it was done. God commanded it to pass. Creation
came into being by that mighty word of God. And so it is with
regards to the salvation of the sinner, the conversion of the
sinner. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, as shined in our hearts, to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But let us turn more particularly
in the second place then to this work of God in conversion. We've looked somewhat at the
comparison with the way God works in creation, but what of this
work that is really the main emphasis of the text, what God
does in the soul of the sinner. What is the result of this enshrining? Well, the result is conversion. What we have here at the end
of the verse is what is termed the purposive clause. Look at the word, too. God who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in
our hearts too. And it introduces this idea in
order to, this is the purpose of God yourself. As he commands
the light to shine in the soul of the sinner, what is God's
aim and objective? It's in order to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now this was Paul's experience.
And Paul is writing out of the fullness of that experience,
it was God who had made him an able minister of the New Testament. Not of the letter, he says, but
of the Spirit, back in chapter 3 and verse 6. How was he made
an able minister of the New Testament? When he experienced that light
shining in the darkness of his own soul. Isn't that the way
in which it's recorded by Luke back in Acts chapter 9 when we
see this zealous pharisee persecuting Christians having received letters
from the Jewish authority. He comes to Damascus breathing
out threatening and slaughter against the disciples of the
Lord. And we're told there in chapter
9 of Acts, verse 3, as he journeyed he came near Damascus and suddenly
there shined round about him a light from heaven. And he fell
to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord?
And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. It is
hard for thee to kick against the prick. So he was pricked
and goaded in his very conscience. He is a man under conviction.
And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have
me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise
and go into the city and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And then he comes into the city
and the Lord gives instruction to this disciple Ananias, He sees the Lord in a vision
and he is to go to the street called Straight, and he is obedient,
strange, experienced at Ananias that he should go to this man
who was an arch-persecutor. Verse 15, the Lord said unto
him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me. to bear my name
before the Gentiles and kings and children of Israel for I
will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's
sake. At last this man saw being told
to go into the city and there it would be told him what he
must do. And this is what he was to do.
This is what he was to do. He was to be a preacher of the
gospel Paul is speaking then out of
his own experience. He had known something of that
light, not only shining about him, but shining into his own
heart. When he writes to the Galatians,
he reminds him, when he pleased God, who separated me from my
mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in
me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles. He not only was
called by the grace of God, there but he was also called to this
office of the ministry. And he was to preach. He was
to preach Christ. The light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. This is what
he experienced. Or did he not see something of
the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ when he was converted?
And it's interesting because this word, the face of Jesus
Christ, is used previously but translated differently. The same
word is used in the original but it's a different translation
that we have in our English version back in chapter 2 and verse 10. To whom ye forgive anything I
forgive also, for if I forgave anything to whom I forgave it,
for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ." It's exactly
the same word, in the face of Christ. We could render it there
in chapter 2 verse 10. But on the other hand, could
we not also render it here in our text? the knowledge of the
glory of God in the person in the person of Jesus Christ or
where there is that in shining of the gospel there is that revelation
of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and it is only in Christ
of course that sinners can know anything of God or anything of
the grace and salvation of God. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He has revealed Him. This is
what Paul experienced. He had that inward revelation
of Christ in his soul. And we all, of course, must know
that's our same experience, that inward revealing. No man knoweth
the Son but the Father. neither knoweth any man the Father
sayeth the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal or that we might know such a
revelation it is life eternal to know thee the only true God
and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent now the Lord Jesus Christ of
course is that one who is the mediator of the new covenant
and remember what we said at the beginning in the context
here in chapter 3 what is Paul doing he is making this contrast
between the two covenants between the law and the gospel he is
having to deal with these false teachers who have come in and
stolen the hearts of so many in Corinth and turn them against
Paul And they were legalists, they wanted to bring these believers
back under the Lord of God, as it were, bring them into bondage,
whereas they knew liberty. There in chapter 3 verse 17,
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. They have
been delivered from the condemning power of that holy law of God. They knew Christ. They knew he
would come as the mediator of the new covenant. What a solemn contrast Paul makes
there in chapter 3 between the two. Covenants, one the ministration
of death and condemnation, the other the ministration of the
spirit and the ministration of righteousness. David speaks of
that glory of the new covenant which so excels any of the glories
of the old covenant. Remember what he says in verse
7, if the ministration of death as the law written and engraved
in stones was glorious so that the children of Israel could
not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his
countenance which glory was to be done away Now shall not the
ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious, or more glorious?
For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the
ministration of righteousness exceed in glory, he says. Oh, it is so much more glorious
is the gospel. It must never always have the
priority over the law, there is of course administration of
the law. We know that what things soever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before
God. Therefore by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. The law worketh wrath. That is what the law does. It
brings condemnation. And it is a very real ministry.
And this man had known something of it. He was once a proud self-righteous
Pharisee. He thought he knew the law. He
knew nothing of the law. But he acknowledges there in
Romans chapter 7 Oh, but when the commandment came, when the
law really came, sin revived, he says, I died. I was alive
without the law once. That's his testimony there in
the seventh chapter of Romans. All things are reproved and made
manifest by the light. The convicted sinner, you see,
when his eyes are opened, Does he not see by that light that
has come into his soul something of the darkness and the confusion
of his real condition? Does he not see something of
the true state of his own heart? That's what Paul is saying there
in Romans chapter 7. It was that tenth commandment,
as we said before, that found him out. and he sees what his
heart is, it's full of all evil desire, all concupiscence he's
a man who has no righteousness really, he imagined he had a
righteousness but it was all an external show when he was
a pharisee but now when the light of God came into his soul he
sees the sad condition of his own heart, the heart which is
deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know
it asks Jeremiah we have to remember of course the comparison that
is being made here in the text go back to God's work of creation
God said let there be light and there was light But what was
the initial state that we read of
there right at the beginning in Genesis 1 and verse 2? The
earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face
of the deep. And God said let there be light
and there was light. There is another comparison,
isn't that in a sense the condition of man's heart? Without form,
void, darkness. And then the light shines and
what does the man see? He sees his real state, he sees
his true condition, his sinful heart, which is deceitful, which
is desperately wicked. Ye were sometimes darkness, says
Paul, But now are ye light in the Lord. For when there is that
work of God, that enshining of light into the soul of a man,
he sees himself as he truly is. Unto the upright light ariseth
in the darkness. The light shineth in the darkness.
and the darkness comprehended it not. This is the way in which
God works. He shows the man what his real
condition is. He shows him the utter blackness,
the darkness, the deadness, the awful sinfulness of his own soul. And it is all I say the work
of God. Only God can overcome that darkness. Only God can change the man.
Only God is able to convert the sinner. Again when we go back to what
Paul says there in chapter 3 verse 3. You are manifestly declared
to be the epistle of Christ he says. Ministered by us written
not with ink but with the spirit of the living God not in tables
of stone but in flesh in tables of the heart. Yes Paul is an
instrument But the work is the work of the Spirit of God and
the work is that that takes place in the soul of the sinner, in
the sinner's heart. And he is made to see what he
is by this enshining of the light. Oh how we see so clearly here
the emphasis of Paul's ministry. It was very much one that laid
stress upon the sovereignty of God, the sovereignty of the grace
of God. and the necessity of the immediacy of that work of
God in the soul of the sinners. The guy in there in verse 6 of
chapter 3, who was my disciple ministers he says of the New
Testament, not of the letter, not of the letter but of the
Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. Paul constantly felt is dependence
upon God. It was God only who made him
an able minister of that New Testament. And so we sought to emphasize
the importance of God coming and God working. Again if we
go back to how we speak to these Corinthians When they were guilty
of a sad partiality were they not? There were those who made
their boast that they were followers of Apollos. Some said they were
followers of Cephas or Peter. Some said that they were followers
of Paul himself. But now he rebukes them there
in chapter 3 of 1 Corinthians. He says, Who then is Paul? Who
is Apollos? But ministers by whom ye believe,
even as the Lord gave to every man. I have planted, Apollos
watered, but God doth the increase. So then neither is he that planteth
anything, neither he that watereth, but God doth give us the increase. The Kingdom of God, you see,
is not in word, is not the word of men. The Kingdom of God is
in power, is that power of God. It is that ministry of the New
Covenant. And that New Covenant very much
and so clearly speaks of the work as being God's own work. When we have it spoken of in
Old Testament Scripture, the the book of Jeremiah, and there
in chapter 31, here is what the prophet says concerning that
new covenant. Remember he is speaking God's
words. Thus saith the Lord, this shall
be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, After
those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts,
and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they
shall be my people. And they shall teach no more
every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying,
Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of
them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord. For I will forgive
their iniquities, and I will remember their sin no more."
And it's those very words that Paul himself takes up in Hebrews
chapter 8 and states plainly that that is the new covenant,
that is the gospel of which he was a minister. God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, to shine in our hearts, to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
or in the person of Jesus Christ. As God was there, active in an
immediate and a sovereign fashion in creation, so in this new creation. It is altogether the work of
God. In my light, says the psalmist,
shall we see light. And ultimately, of course, we
see it with the coming of Christ. when he declares himself to be
the great I am on those several occasions in John's Gospel, what
does he say in chapter 8? I am the light of the world.
I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. And this is
that light of life, is it not? It's all in order to give the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God. And where is it?
It's in the face, it's in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul speaks in of that gracious
inward work of God that comes into the soul of the sinner.
That sinner who is dead in his sin, dead in trespasses and in
sin. Oh, but when the night comes,
when the light shines and the man is made to see the darkness,
the confusion, the deadness. But all that light brings life
and brings salvation, even that saving knowledge of God and all
in the person of Christ. All God grants that we might
know then and experience constantly such a gracious enshining of
the Word of God, a blessed in shining of the gospel into our
souls. The Lord draws it for His now
son.