Well, good evening. I greet you
in the worthy name of the Lord Jesus Christ, our beloved Savior.
And as I do that, I give honor to our great, our worthy God.
who's deserving of all praise, all honor, all power and might
is his. I'm thankful for the songs we
sung in testimony to him and to the great power that is his,
that is displayed in our conversion and bringing us to himself by
sovereign grace. And I would repeat what our brother
has said on my own behalf and as well I can speak on behalf
of Terry, I know. to say thanks to God for all
the blessing of fellowship with you, my brothers and sisters,
that we've enjoyed these days. And we're grateful for the mercies
of God that have blessed us to renew that time together. And
we look to the Lord for his blessing. I would ask you to pray for the
ministry of God's word. We remind our hearers oftentimes
when we're given the opportunity to preach the word, of those
words that mark that song, Brethren, We Have Met to Worship. And I
would remind you of them again. That first stanza says, Brethren,
we have met to worship and adore the Lord our God. Will you pray
with all your power while we try to preach the Word? And then
the hymn writer explains that request. All is vain unless the
Spirit of the Holy One come down. Brethren, pray in holy manner.
will be showered all around. May God grant that as His Spirit
would own the Word in that way that He alone and uniquely can
do to the good of our souls and to the glory of our God and of
our Lord Jesus Christ. I want to invite you this evening
to turn with me to the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians
2nd Corinthians and I'd like to direct your attention to that
4th chapter of 2nd Corinthians and I'd like as we look at that
portion to, to read in your hearing those opening verses 1 through
6. We'll look together particularly
in the message at verses 3 through 6 tonight God willing, but I,
I want us to just go back to verse 1 in consideration of what
the Spirit of God has given Paul. In the course of what ends chapter
2 and really into the beginning of chapter 7. The Apostle Paul
has made what I like to call a Holy Ghost digression. He is
having addressed an issue in the church at Corinth about discipline,
he goes on to speak about the glory of God in the ministry
of the Gospel. And as he does that, these words
are found within that setting. Again, it begins around chapter
2, verse 13, and it goes on into chapter 7, those opening words
of that chapter. And, and the Spirit of God points
out the glory of God that is manifest in the ministry of the
good news of Jesus Christ. Chapter 3, a blessed chapter,
relates that as it speaks about the glory that exceleth that's
in the new covenant over against the old covenant. The old covenant,
a ministration of death because of sin and rebellion, but the
new covenant, ministration of life and of righteousness, and
as the apostle has spoken about that in chapter 3, he goes on
to say this in chapter 4, beginning there at verse 1, 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. But if our gospel be
hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this
world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of
God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake. 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. We trust our God will add His
blessing, His stamp and seal to these written words from His
Word. May we just pause before Him
to ask His blessing to us. Father, we bow our heads and
we unite our hearts in the name of thy worthy Son. Father, as
we come in that matchless name, that name which you delight to
honor, that name at which every knee will bow and every tongue
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Father, we ask of thee,
that by thy spirit you would bless your word, you'd own it
to the good of souls, and you'd benefit us, Father, and glorify
your Son in doing so. Honor him who is worthy, we pray.
Father, we give you glory as we ask it in the worthy name
of the Lord Jesus, amen. As we look at these words of
2 Corinthians 4 this evening, I want to give you by way of
a title, Heavenly Sunlight. Heavenly sunlight. Many of you
will know that that's not original with me. I've borrowed it. Some
would say stolen it. But borrowed it, I'd like to
say, from a hymn. Heavenly sunlight. Walking in
sunlight all of my journey. Heavenly sunlight is really,
I believe, an appropriate word by way of a title for these words
of Paul that focus on the light of the gospel. and what God does
by that Gospel light through His grace in the souls of men.
But it also speaks of a wider group, humanity at large, relative
to the Gospel. And the Apostle speaks of that
particularly beginning in verses 3 and 4. In verses 1 and 2, the
Apostle, having spoken about the ministry of the Gospel that
excelled the law in chapter 3, He goes on to speak about his
own personal attitude with regard to the Gospel, that having received
mercy, he doesn't faint. He doesn't find himself growing
weary, but also, he said, we've put aside, we've renounced the
hidden things of dishonesty. In other words, we want to be
people of integrity as we handle this message. We want to be people
who are real as we handle this message. Now, I say that not
in the way that some might think. For some would think, as we handle
this Gospel, we must put on a fine effrontery of religious piousity,
you know. That's not what, Paul wanted
to be real with this Gospel from the standpoint of integrity before
God. but, but that leads to a question.
Paul, if you're commending yourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God with this Gospel, why don't men believe it? Why aren't people captured by
it? Why isn't there an automatic
attraction on the part of people to this message? After all, it's
marked by, as chapter 3 says, that glory that exceleth. It's
marked by this glory that surpasses the glory that made Moses' face
shine when he came down from Sinai. The Gospel has a greater
glory. Then why? captivated by it. Verses 3 and 4 provide an answer
to us in measure. Now there's more to it than what
verses 3 and 4 say, but in, in this particular setting, this
is the Apostle by inspiration of the Spirit addressing the
reality of what we could call the hidden Gospel. notice it
please, and I ask you to think with me about the blinding work
of Satan. Notice it in verse 3, the apostle
writes, But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are
lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds
of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel
of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Now, as we think of those words, the apostle, in some measure,
in verse 3, is going back to something that was said in chapter
3. He speaks about our gospel being hid, but the idea of the
word hid is veiled. And he's making reference to
the fact that Moses, when he came down from the mountain,
veiled his face so that the children of Israel would not see that
glory, a glory which was fading. But then, as the apostle speaks
about it, He says this, and if you'll go with me back to chapter
3 just to notice it please. In those words of the third chapter
of II Corinthians, the apostle speaks about that veil. Pick
up with me please at, at verse, well let's just go to verse 13.
As I say that I'm going to have to tell you, read verse 12 with
me too. Seeing then that we have such hope we use great plainness
of speech, something we see in verses 1 and 2 of the present
chapter we're looking at. But then notice, and not as Moses
which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could
not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished. Notice
how it continues though, But their minds were blinded. For
until this day remaineth what? The same veil untaken away in
the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when
Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. What was Israel's
problem? It wasn't the gospel. It was
a veil that covered them. The gospel was hidden from them.
The gospel was kept back because of the veil. Much like Moses
veiled his face, their heart is veiled. And the apostle picks
up the point out that this extends beyond Israel. He says if our
gospel be hid, it is hid to those who are lost. it is veiled to
those of humanity who don't see the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But then verse 4 expands on that,
for it says about the blinding work of Satan concerning those
who are lost, in whom the God of this world has blinded the
minds of them which believe not, lest the light, the glorious
light, the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image
of God should shine unto them. here we see the work of the evil
one in blinding, blinding people to the light of the Gospel. Now
we'll say more about that, but I want to just ask you as we
think about this matter of the blinding work, to first of all,
think with me about the, the Satan's title that's given him
here. Notice those words of verse 4, In whom the God of this world. Somebody might say, but Brother
David, I, I thought God of, the God of the Bible is the God of
this world. He is the God of, this world is Creator, but the
God of this age is really the evil one. He's the one who controls
the minds of people. And the way Ephesians 2 speaks
of it, I think, gives us great commentary on this. Ephesians
2, those opening verses, I know so many of you probably have
them memorized, but remember as Paul takes the Ephesian saints
back to the graveyard, the cemetery, where the Lord found them in
his sovereign grace, their spiritual death. He says in verse 1 of
chapter 2 of Ephesians, And you hath he quickened, who were dead
in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked. We were
dead, but it was an active death. wherein in time past ye 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 lust of the flesh, of lust of our flesh,
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were
by nature the children of wrath, even as others." There we see
that subjugation that marked us in Ephesians 2, how we were
controlled, dominated by, as one hymn writer puts it in one
of those old hymns, such as this thing here, guided by his artful
treachery. He referred to Satan. We were,
as it were, under his dominion in our lost condition. And because
of that, there was a blindness that marked us, because the God
of this world, we were under his way, the prince of the power
of the air, the one whose spirit is at work actively in those
who are sons of disobedience. But you know, there was a greater
problem that really Satan's blinding accompanied. and that was the
reality of our depravity. Because John speaks about it
this way in the words of our Lord in John chapter 3. He says
this in those words that follow the much beloved John 3.16. He said, and this is the condemnation,
that men loved darkness rather than light. because their deeds
were evil. By nature, people have a greater
love affinity for darkness than light. I remember that in my
own lost days. I love sin. And I love the darkness
of sin. And that reality is something
that marks man in his depravity, in his nature. But not only that,
brothers and sisters, Satan is pleased, as it were, in his task
that marks him. He's pleased. He's pleased to
keep men in that blindness. He's the one who, as the God
of this world, tries to hide the glory of God from us. Now,
that That is something we see across the board in humanity.
The Bible tells us in Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory
of God and the firmament shows his handiwork. Heaven itself
enrolls every son and daughter of Adam in a day school and a
night school. And every day, the heavens above
bear witness to the glory of God. And every night, God's evening
classes, the stars, the sun, the moon, all they declare God's
glory. And yet man is oblivious to that.
nature, man who's without excuse, changes the glory of the incorruptible
God into the image of corruptible things, man, four-footed beast,
creeping things. That brothers and sisters is,
is, is part of the blindness that we see here. But, but when,
when the Apostle as we go back to 2 Corinthians 4 speaks about
this, he shows us the design of the evil one particularly,
the design of the God of this world is, the that the light
of the glorious Gospel of Christ who's the image of God should
shine out of it. He doesn't want that. His desire
is that, that somehow he could reign the Gospel in if it were
in his power so that it would not bring the light of God's
glory and of the image of Christ to us. And he's, he's very artful
in that. We think about the toys and trinkets
that he uses in the world to captivate the minds of people.
They're legion, really. The things that are employed
so that we never give God a passing thought. The toys of this world. You know, there's that saying
that someone is made, he who dies with the most toys wins.
Somebody changed it. He who dies with the most toys
still dies. And that's the biblical picture.
But those toys, they enamor us, they seduce us, they allure us,
because the evil one wants the minds of men to be captivated. not see the light of the glorious
gospel. I remember years ago hearing a sermon by Brother Ralph
Barnard in which he spoke about how, and this was, I'm imagining,
I don't know the date of the cassette tape that I was listening
to. If you don't know what that is,
ask me after the service. But I don't know what the date
was. I'm going to imagine the 40s
or 50s, may have been the 60s. He died in 69, so it couldn't
have been after that. But Brother Barnard was talking
about how One could go from his house to the car and on the way
to the car he could still be listening to the radio. That
would have been a transistor radio. You can ask me what that
was later too if you'd like. But there was that which, you
know, the idea he brought out was you leave the house where
you've got noise. You go as you walk to the car
with a transistor radio, you've got noise. You get in the car,
you turn on the radio, you've got noise. That man didn't want
to think. He didn't want to have something
that would take his mind away from this world. He wanted something
that would occupy him with his world. And if that were true
when Brother Barnard lived, how much more is it true now? with
all of the toys that we have. You can't get away from all the
white noise in some measure. What's the enemy's goal? Well,
we see it here, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ
should shine unto them. Misery loves company, and Satan
wants as many in hell with him as he can bring. Over against
that, there's a turn in the passage. The Apostle goes on to speak
as he talks about the image of God and the glorious Gospel of
Christ, the, the glory of Christ and the image of God who, which
Christ is. He, he, he then speaks about
verse 5, the proclaimed person of Christ. I love the words of
verse 5 because they become really a, a good, good standard by which
to test a man, if he claims to be a preacher. Paul says, for we preach not
ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants
for Jesus' sake. I'm afraid there are many men
whose ministry is probably predominated by preaching themselves. And that's no ministry at all.
Here the apostle speaks well of what we could first of all
point out as his work as a servant. He speaks about the fact that
we're servants for Jesus' sake. And the word is, the Greek text
is doulos, which is the word, my wife Terry, she is a doula. It's the feminine form of the
word Paul uses here in the masculine. You could think of it as a maidservant
if you wanted to, although she's not a maid. She tends to babies
for mothers and as a doula, when they're newborn, she helps those
mothers to work through those first weeks and early months
of being a mother. And her help's greatly appreciated
because With me, she had six children, so she's got a lot
of experience along those lines. But that word doulus speaks really
of a bond slave. It speaks of someone who would
have negligible clout in Roman society. Paul says that's what
we are. Paul speaks similarly in 1 Corinthians
4.1 when he says, let a man so account of us as ministers of
Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. In other words, he says,
in effect, we're those who are slaves, but we're also stewards
who one day must give account. We're not handling what belongs
to us, we're handling what belongs to the living God. And we want
to be faithful with that. I remember years ago hearing
Brother Henry Mahan tell of a preacher friend he had from,
from Arkansas and, and this, this preacher went to visit one
of his deacons in the hospital and as he was ministering to
him there in the hospital, he asked this deacon who was terminal,
terminally ill, he asked him, is it well with your brother?
And that deacon looked back at him and said, it is if you told
me We exercise a great responsibility,
the souls of men. And it will be no small mercy
if, when judgment comes, we can discharge ourselves faithfully."
Paul realized he was a steward. The message wasn't about Paul.
The message was given by Paul. What was the message, though?
Notice it. We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. I'm reminded of what Brother
Norm has shared with me these days, and we'd heard it before,
but when he came to Sovereign Base Grace Baptist Church, he
said he had one message. Marilyn, I understand you had
a comment on that, but you were pleasantly surprised. One message. What was that message? We preach
not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. What a theme. What a, what a message. And that's
what Paul here speaks of. Remember he had earlier told
the Corinthians in his first letter, I was determined when
I came among you brethren, not to speak with excellency of speech
or wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God. I was determined
to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. I wanted to preach the Messiah,
but I wanted to preach him as he is in the scriptures. the
one who is God's beloved one, was born of a virgin womb, came
by that womb into this low ground of sorrow in humanity, but a
sinless humanity, and in that sinless humanity, he lived, and
he lived so that he might, as Brother Scott Richard said one
time, earn the right to die for sinners by his perfection. And
he did, praise God, He earned that right to lay down his life
on behalf of his people. He earned that right to purchase
his bride through his blood. And brothers and sisters, having
done that, he got up that third day morning. Death could not
keep its prey because he'd satisfied the living God. He'd done all
that God required for the salvation of his people. And he's alive
today, seated in the glory because He has the Father's well done.
And because of Him, we have the Father's well done. Paul, delighted
in preaching that one. We preach not ourselves, but
Christ Jesus the Lord. Let's just review that briefly
as we think about the proclaimed person of Christ. Christ. It's
the Greek word translating Messiah. Christos Mashiach. It's the word
that speaks of that anointed and appointed, favored one that
God had promised in the Old Covenant Scriptures. Anointed offices
in the Old Testament involve prophet, priest, and king. And
our Lord Jesus Christ is all of those wrapped up in His glorious
person and work. He's the prophet that we need
to communicate who God is to us. As John says in 1 John 5,
the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that
we may know Him that is true. He said in John 17, that great
prayer, Father, I've declared thy name unto those whom thou
hast given me. That means more than just speaking
a name. That means He shows us who the
Father is. And He can say, He that has seen
me has seen the Father. Hallelujah. He's Christ, the
prophet, but He's also priest. We need someone as priest who
can represent us to God and in His glory. He is that priest
after the order of Melchizedek. He's that one who surpasses all
that errant and the sacrifice is pointed to. He's the one who
fulfills it completely. He's the one who provides that
blood by which we can enter the presence of God. He's the one
who took the place that we deserved. Our brother and I were talking
together this morning. He told me about going through
Leviticus and the mention of the burnt offering. In the Greek
translation of that is called the Holocaust offering. For that's
what holocaust means, wholly burnt. And brothers and sisters,
He became the fulfillment of that burnt offering. As on the
cross, His sinless soul became sin for us. And in doing that,
the Father consumed His wrath on His Son. But here's the good
news. As one put it at Carmel, The
fire came down that consumed the sacrifice. But at Calvary,
the sacrifice came down that consumed the fire. That's the
glory of the gospel. There's no wrath for God's people
now because that sacrifice was able to fully take to himself
the fire of God's wrath. Oh, thank God for the reality
of that. I love the way we mentioned Ms. Cousin last night in the
hymn of substitution. She wrote in that verse about
the cup. She said this about the sword
drawing from the image of scripture. Jehovah bade his sword awake.
Oh Christ it woke against thee. The flaming sword thy blood must
slake. Thy heart its sheath must be. All for my sake, my peace to
make. Now sleeps that sword for me. The sword that God in Zechariah
13, 7 commanded to awaken against his son, the shepherd, the man
who is his fellow, that sword will not strike one of those
dear ones whom Christ purchased by that blood, because that sword
was satisfied when he is our holocaust, he is our whole burnt
offering, consumed the fire that consumed him. And brothers and
sisters, he is then priest, but he's also king, thank God. He
reigns on high. Some time back I was preaching
at a church in North Carolina, Baptist Church. They had the
old Broadman hymnal, and we sang a song. You know, Terry and I
have just gotten back from Hawaii, and you know, I didn't hear Aloha
A, but Mr. B.B. McKinney wrote a song with
that tune in mind, and the chorus says, I won't sing it for you,
I don't want a premature exit, but that song, the chorus says,
he reigns on high, you can get that idea, aloha, he reigns on
high. And brothers and sisters, our
Lord Jesus Christ, the great King of the Kingdom, He reigns
on high. He's seated in the glory. He's
been given all authority in heaven and earth. Now, you might say,
but He possessed that authority from eternity. Yes, He did, but
not as the mediator. He earned that through His cross
work. And the Father has given it,
and He says, all authority, all power is given me in heaven and
in earth. And as the God-man, He possesses
that. He's prophet, priest, and king,
but then our words tell us we preach not ourselves, but Christ
Jesus the Lord. He's Messiah, and in that capacity
as the one promised, He was coming to die. He was to be the one
who would suffer. But He's also Jesus, and I'm
reminded of what Joseph is told in that great picture in Matthew
1 when Joseph finds out that Mary's expecting a child, and
Joseph knows the child is not his, so he's minded to put her
away privily. He's going to, not make a public
show of it, but he's going to say, I can't marry you, Mary.
But while he thought on these things, the angel of the Lord
appeared to him and said, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to
take into thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in
her is of the Holy Ghost, and she shall bring forth the Son,
and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins. Hallelujah. That's the one that
we celebrate. That's the one whom every minister
of the gospel preaches. Christ Jesus. But then we add
the Lord. Because God also hath highly
exalted him. In his work as Savior, he is
also Lord. Ralph Barnard used to say, don't
tell me who your Savior is, tell me who your Lord is and I'll
tell you who your Savior is. You see, those who by grace have
been saved have bowed the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember
Scott Richardson on one occasion as he was preaching about the
Lordship of Christ, he said, every knee is going to bow. He
had that gruff, cold, minor voice. Every knee's gonna bow! He said,
salvation's just bowing ahead of time. And that's what grace
does. Grace brings us to bow to him
who is Lord, to him whom the Father has appointed as Lord,
and we own him gladly as Lord. Every intelligence, every created,
rational intelligence, demonic, angelic, human's going to bow.
But grace has made us to bow now. Grace has done that work
in giving a new heart to sinners, so that we bow now and own His
Lordship, and we can rejoice in this preached message, this
glorious message, the proclaimed person of Christ. Brothers and
sisters, this is, this is of course not the fullness of who
He is, but may we take it as a synopsis. We preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord. What a message. What a blessed,
blessed message. We sung about it tonight. Ah,
joy, the rich hymns of the gospel we've sung, talking about that.
Brothers and sisters, he is the one whom Paul could speak of
as the content of his message. But then we read something else
that I want to call to your attention in verse 6. And here we see the
sovereign saving work. We have the God of this world
mentioned in verse 4, who blinds the minds of those who believe
not. He does so through the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ.
The image of God should not shine, should, would not shine to them.
And then Paul says, we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus
the Lord. So far if you put those two things together, Basically,
what you have is a message that no one wants. But that's not going to be. For
the Scriptures tell us in 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. Here we find the reality of what
God did, and in this connection that the Spirit of God gives
to the pen of Paul here, we see the work of God going back to
the seed plot book of the Bible, the book of Genesis. And we remember
those words of Genesis 1, And God said, let there be light,
and there was light. And against that backdrop of
the original creation, and of the light that shone on the physical
earth, and on the world that God had made, Paul takes that
analogy and he applies it to the spiritual realm for God's
people. That God spoke into our hearts. God spoke with that sovereign
word, but here, unlike that work, that word in creation originally,
that was a sovereign word, but it wasn't a saving word. But
now he's spoken not only with a sovereign word, but a saving
word. And he has shown in our hearts,
and he said, along the way in the course of years here for
every believer that's gathered, to those listening remotely,
there are those who have been brought to the grace of God,
brought by the grace of God to Christ, and as that's happened,
God at some point or another has spoken to your heart. And
he said, light shined. And it did. It is heavenly sunlight, I can tell
you. It's glorious. But I want you to notice as the
apostle speaks here, for God who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness has shined in our hearts, notice, to give the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. We've seen the light of that
glory. But where does the Apostle say
we've seen it? In the face of Jesus Christ. Now I would ask you in thinking
about that to remember who's writing these words and what
we know about His previous history. There was a time when this man
hated the Gospel. He hated the Lord Jesus Christ. What's that in your hand, Paul?
Letters. What for? So that I can persecute
those followers of that blasphemous, imposter Messiah, Jesus the Nazarene. I've got authority from the high
priest, and I'm going to take them, as many of us as I can
get, when I get to Damascus. You catch up with him in Damascus
a few days later, what's he doing? He's in the synagogue preaching
that Jesus is the Son of God. You can't have a side after the
message. You say, Paul, what happened to you? Oh, let me tell
you what happened. I was on my way to Damascus,
and as I was headed there, I saw the Shekinah glory of Jehovah
that the prophets had seen. But strangely, out of that glory,
a voice was asking me, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And
I had to cry out, who are you, Lord? And out of the voice of
the Shekinah glory of Jehovah came these words, I am Jesus
whom you are persecuting. There was only one thing to do.
And I cried out, Lord, what wouldst thou have me do? He bowed the
knee. Why? Because he'd seen the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And brothers and sisters, what
was Paul's experience literally, physically, visibly, has been
our experience spiritually. For the Spirit of God commands
the light to shine in our darkened hearts, blinded by the God of
this world. but he will not be successful.
That is the God of this world. He'll not be able to succeed
in blinding the minds of God's elect. No! God will command the
light to shine. And all of a sudden, this world
that we were marked in by darkness becomes a world filled with heavenly
sunlight because of the grace of God in the gospel. because
of the power of God that is able to take us, as Peter says in
his first letter, chapter 2, to bring us out of darkness into
His marvelous light. I'm so glad to be walking in
sunlight. I'm so glad for the light that's
shown because of God's sovereign grace. And brothers and sisters,
I'm glad that I know that light shines in the face of Jesus Christ. Brother Lawrence shared with
us some time back a clip of a sermon by a brother down in Georgia. The focus of the clip we had
was, Have You Seen Him? I'd end on that note tonight.
Have you seen Him? Have you seen the glory of God? If you see it in a saving way,
it's going to have to be in the face of Jesus Christ. One day
the glory of God will be seen in the face of Jesus Christ in
judgment, because the Father has committed all judgment to
the Son. And that face will be a face of judgment toward those
who know Him not, but for all who have been brought to look
to Him by faith. That face is a face of grace.
That face is a face of overwhelming love to the people of God. And it happens because of the
sovereign work of God, not in the old creation, but in the
new creation. As He commands the light to shine
out of darkness into our hearts, And I'm glad to be walking in
sunlight all of my journey. Oh, I have to confess to you,
honestly, I don't always see the sunlight. But that doesn't
mean the sun's not shining. I may not see it, but I'm glad
the Son sees me." The Lord Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters,
we can, by the grace of God, walk as children of light because
of that. Live as those in the world who
become a light. We were talking today, and Pastor
Norm mentioned about being a full moon. May God grant us to be
that. Any light you and I have in us
is a reflection of the light of Christ. May we be full moons,
because we by grace have seen the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And if tonight there are any
who are listening who've not, rather here, remotely, or later,
you've not seen the glory of God, I would say to you, run
to Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
God commands that you repent and believe. Stack arms. Let
hold of His Son by faith. Say, Brother David, I can't do
that. You're good. You're on good ground there.
But brothers and sisters, we're called to give that Word, and
we call on you who know Him not to believe. For us who know Him, may we enjoy the journey a little
more. Walking in sunlight. all of my journey. May that be
our song, because we've seen His glory in the face of His
beloved Son. The glory the prophets saw, Paul
saw visibly. The glory the prophets saw, you
and I can see spiritually by grace through faith in God's
dear Son.