2 Corinthians chapter 4, beginning
with 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. If it has no impact, if it has
no Nothing special about it if it
runs contrary to your thinking. If our gospel be hid, it's hid
to them that are lost, in whom the God, notice that's a little
g on there, 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. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. We're troubled on every side,
yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in
despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body
the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always
delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus
might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then, death
worketh in us, but life in you. We having the same spirit of
faith, according as it is written, I believed and therefore have
I spoken, we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that
he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus
and shall present us with you. For all things are for your sakes. that the abundant grace might
through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not,
but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed
day by day. For our light affliction." I
wish I had time this morning to read over some of the afflictions
that he talks about that he went through and bore for these churches.
But here he calls them all light afflictions, which is but for
a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory. While we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, For the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. If you will turn back with me
to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. My subject this morning is the
invisible gospel. The invisible gospel. I remember when I first began
to see some things, and I tried to talk to the elders in the
church about them, they told me that I was seeing things that
wasn't there. I found out later that they were
right. I was seeing things that they couldn't see. And I wondered why they couldn't
see them. They were so plain to me. They were just crystal clear
to me, very simple statements, easy to be understood. I wondered
why they couldn't see them and why they got so angry when I
wanted to talk about them. They get angry. What are you
angry about? We're talking about the Word of God. I'm not trying
to sell you a car. Why are you so upset about it? Well, Paul begins this wonderful
chapter talking about a hidden gospel. And here's how he talks
about his preaching. He said, I submit my preaching. to every man's conscience in
the sight of God. I don't have anything else to
offer. I don't tell him to call the
seminary. They got my name on record down there and they'll
vouch for me. No, I submit myself, I have ever
since I've been here and I do it again this morning, to every
man's conscience in the sight of God. God will either reveal
this to you or he won't. One or the other. This gospel is hidden, Paul said. He begins this chapter by telling
us that. If, verse 3, our gospel be hid, who can't see it? The lost. The lost. If our gospel be hid, it's hid
to them that are lost, men and women, ignorant of the ways and
means of God, ignorant of the things of God, and especially
of the character of God. It's hid to them that are lost.
Now why? Why is it hidden? How is it hidden?
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
should shine unto them. Now before he said this, he said,
God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness. There
was nothing back there but darkness. Just darkness. Nobody could see
anything. Nobody could know anything. You
couldn't learn anything. Nothing was being manifested.
It was just darkness. And God said, let there be light.
Before He created anything, before He did one thing, He said, let
there be light. What kind of light? The light
of the glory of God in Jesus Christ. Who created the world? God in general? That's not what
it says. What it says is our Savior created
the world. He created the world in the light
of himself and in the light of all that he was chosen to do,
all that he was ordained to do of God. And that salvation, that
redemption, that glory is built into everything that he made.
And he uses it all through the scriptures describing this, that,
and the other. Darkness and light. The sun. The sun rising up in the morning.
You do well to take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark
place until the day dawn and the sun arise in your heart. Christ. Why is it? Because the God of
this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. Who
is the God of this world? Well, I think you can be right
in either sense. in either sense. First of all,
there's only one true and living God. Our God said, I'm God, and
beside me there is none other. God, with a little g, is just
a word he uses to describe the imaginations of men and the inventions
of men. There's only one true and living
God. In Matthew 11, 25, our Lord said,
I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou
hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed
them unto babes. So you'd be right if you said
the God of this world was the Eternal God, because He does
hide things from men. We preach the hidden things of
darkness, the hidden things of God. And he said, even so, Father,
for so it seemed good in thy sight. Well, why would God hide
the one thing that can save a man's soul? Why would he do that? 2
Thessalonians 2.10. And here he's talking about,
he's not talking about some incarnate evil that's going to come into
the world in the form of a man. He's talking about anti-Christ
religion. He's talking about the principles
that they set forth, the gospel that they preach. And he said,
when the spirit of Antichrist comes, he's going to come with
all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because
they receive not the love of the truth that they might be
saved. They didn't want to hear it.
They didn't want to believe it. And for this cause, God shall
send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that
they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but have
pleasure in unrighteousness." So first of all, when he's talking
about things being hidden, and hidden by the God of this world,
he's talking about the true and living God. But then secondly, in this passage
you'll notice that word God is not capitalized. The God of this
world is the deceived imagination of ungodly men and women who
have an imaginary image of God in their heads and in their hearts. And I know I'm not the only preacher
because I've heard many say the same thing. People tell you,
my God's not like that. He may not be. He may not be. It's an image set forth and promoted
by worldly religion. It's an image that appeals to
fallen men. And this image is the image of
a man called the son of perdition. This image is one that opposeth
and exalteth himself above all that's called God. Can you imagine
a wiggling maggot of a man arguing with God. Paul talks about that in Romans
9, don't he? Why doth he yet found fault?
For who hath resisted his will? That's a man talking to God.
And Paul said, whoa, wait a minute. Who art thou that replies against
God? Shall the thing formed say unto
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? You see what
I'm saying? This image is one that opposeth
and exalteth itself. He's done all he can do. Now
it's all up to you. Really? So that he as God sitteth in
the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. I make my own
decisions. I establish my own, this and
that. You're sitting in the temple
of God as God. It's the very spirit and heart
of Antichrist religion, an image promoting universal love, promoting
a God of limitations, brought on by the will of man. a God subject to the will of
man, stayed by the will of man, and basically left helpless by
the will of man. He makes man the center of creation. In short, he's the very image
of man and not God at all. Men and women are blinded by
Antichrist religion. They have these preconceived
notions of who God is. He loves everybody. He wants
everybody to be saved. He's doing this. He's doing that.
They have this preconceived notion and then they open this Bible
and they'll read a passage about the true and living God. And
I don't understand that. Yeah, you do. It just don't fit
your image. You understand it. When he said, I'm God, I change
not, what part of that don't you understand? It's easy to
understand, it just don't fit your idea of God. And Paul said, if our gospel
be hid, it's hid to the lost, in whom the God of this world
hath blinded their minds. He makes man the center of creation. And in short, he's the very image
of man. Men and women are blinded by
anti-Christ religion. They take their image of God
and man and then try to read the scriptures. And then they're
forced to rest the scriptures. To rest the scriptures. Matthew
6, our Lord makes an amazing statement concerning these things.
Matthew 6, 22. He said, the light of the body
is the eye. It's the eye. If therefore thine
eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. Now he's
not talking here about natural light and things, he's just using
a picture. If thine eye be evil. Here's
the only source of light that I have, these eyes. But what
about if they were evil? And every bit of light that I
had was evil. Huh? If the light that be in
thee be darkness, then how great is that darkness? If everything in my mind's eye
is darkness, and I'm calling it light, then how great is that
darkness? It's unfathomable. The whole body should be full
of darkness, and if my faith is a computation of false doctrine,
half-truths, vain deception, if everything I think I am seeing
is evil, then how great is that darkness? This is what Paul's
saying. If our gospel be hid, it's hid
to the lost in whom the God of this world hath blinded their
minds. And because our gospel's hid,
because this ungodly world has another gospel and another spirit
and another God, believers are persecuted, despised, and ostracized
from their societies. Paul said we're troubled on every
side. Every side. Within and without,
in the church and out of the church. But we're not distressed. We're perplexed. I don't know
what to do at times. I just don't know what to do.
Somebody say, what do I do? I don't know. I'm perplexed. Don't know what to do. but not in despair. Persecuted, oh persecuted, but
not forsaken. Always bearing about in the body
the dying of our Lord Jesus, giving himself for God's elect,
suffering these things. that the life of Jesus might
be manifest in our body, that is, his resurrected life, which
is evidenced by our lives in faith. They're evidenced in his
people, which lives could never be if he were not sitting at
the right hand of God. We'd still be dead in trespasses
and sins. We'd still be duped like others.
We'd still be swallowed up by lies. And then he gives to us
an encouraging word. He says, for all things, all
things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might
be through the thanksgiving of many, that it might redound to
the glory of God. And oh, what a comprehensive
statement. What a broad declaration. You
cannot stretch it out too far. You can't stretch it out as far
or as large as it really is. All things are for your sakes. The ordination, incarnation,
life, death, resurrection of Christ and his present reign
and glory, the gift of the Holy Ghost, The preaching of the gospel,
the very providence of God, even the sufferings and persecution
of believers, it's all for your sakes. And for all of these things,
God gets the glory. He gets all the glory. We thank
God and even our gratitude redounds unto the glory of God. And oh,
what an encouragement it is to know these things. I'll never
forget the day that when the doctor told Kathy she
had terminal cancer. Told her she had so many days
to live. And of course, after we got out of the doctor's office,
she bowed her head and just cried. She cried. But I told her this, this is
not a curse to you. This is God taking you by your
hand and saying it's time to come home. It's not a curse, it's a blessing.
It's what I hope. Now it's time. each time, and
with a loving hand, receives her into glory. Huh? Now I might cry over my loss,
but she's not going to cry. She said, I never thought of
it that way. I said, well, that's how to think about it. And thinking
on these things, Paul said, for the which cause we think not.
There's such an encouragement. And though our outward man perish,
yet the inward man is renewed day by day. And when we think
about these things, all our afflictions seem lighter than what to do
without it, don't they? Not as bad as I made it out to
be. He writes in 2 Corinthians 4.17,
for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, just a brief
space in eternity. Paul spent years in prison, but
he says it's a brief moment. Just a blink of the eye. And
they work for us. How? Not by merit or self-glory,
but he says in Romans 8.18, I reckon that the sufferings of this present
time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us. They work not by merit, but as
a means to an end, a means to enjoy what's been given to us.
They work the same way that ordinances work. We take the wine, we eat
the bread. They help us to enjoy what we
have. We look through these things
and we see those things that we have. They work like the ordinances
and the Word. They work the same as gospel
preaching. And these things are used to
prove and exercise and improve the quality of life that we live
in this world. They're used to wean us from
this world. He helps you to get ready to
go. I remember Henry in his last days, I got to speak to him and
Scott two weeks before they died, both of them. And these things
are just, he was ready. laying in the bed and sick and
couldn't do anything. He was ready to go. They wean
us from this world. These things are used to draw
out our desires and hope and expectation of a better place.
They work for us, Paul said, not against us. They work for
us a far more exceeding and eternal way to glory. What in the world
does that mean? That means that the end far exceeds
the means. That's what that means. This
little bit of suffering you have here, you can't even compare
it to the glory of heaven. How in the world could you compare
it? There's nothing to compare it to. It far exceeds whatever
loss we suffer here and far exceeds whatever suffering we're called
upon to bear. Alright. I wanted to talk about those
things in some detail. So how do all these things work? How do all these things work?
Verse 18, look at this. While we look not at things which
are seen. What? How do you look at something
you can't see? We're looking at things not seen. For the things which are seen
are temporal, temporary, but the things which are not seen
are eternal. And Paul, under the influence
of the Holy Ghost, he sets before us two things, two things that
will forever change our attitude and conduct in this world. He
talks about looking not, and then he talks about looking. So let's look at this first,
looking not. And this is not telling us to
go into solitude and get away from everything and everybody
and become a monk or something. That's not what he's telling
us here. When he says to look not, he's not talking about putting
on a mask or blinders or something like that. He's talking about
eyes of faith. Eyes of faith, God-given eyes,
blessed eyes. These eyes are not to be over-concerned
with this world. You can be over-concerned with
this world. We look to this, we look to that,
we get caught up. Everybody in here, myself included,
does this. We get over-concerned with the
world. And the more concern you have
with the world, the less concern you have with God. And these
things are all temporary. They're all going to go. I love
a new car. I love a new car. Man, I drove
my truck home. It wasn't brand new, but it was
nice. And I drove it home. Boy, I felt so good in that truck.
It was nice. I still like it. But it's just temporary. Very
soon, it's going to the scrap heap. I've had a bunch that go
to the scrap heap. Just temporary. We get so caught
up in houses and furniture and lawns and decoration. There's
no end to it. Our job, our position, politics. It's like a huge sponge and it
just sucks all the juice out of you. You just don't look at
it. I mean, look at it. It's here.
Look at it. Be concerned with it, but don't
get over-concerned with it. God's on the throne. He's talking about eyes of faith,
God-given eyes. And everything in this world
is just temporary. This world is a stage upon which
God will manifest His glory. And when He's finished manifesting
His glory, He'll fold it up like a vesture. Isn't that what it
says in Scripture? Listen to this, the earnest expectation
of creation. waiteth for the manifestation
of the sons of God. It's going to keep on being just
like it is until God gets done with His elect. When He gets
done manifesting His glory and calling out His elect, it's over. That's what creation expects. That's the end to which it was
created. In Hebrews 1.10, It says, Thou, Lord, in the beginning
hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the
work of Thine hands. They shall perish, but Thou remainest. And they all shall wax old as
doth a garment, and as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up. And
they're going to be changed. But Thou art the same. Thou art
the same. Everything here is temporary.
Enjoy what you have. Use it for the glory of God.
Scripture says, number your days. You just have so many. Well,
how long is it? I don't know. But you just have
so many. Learn to number your days. Realize
that our stay here has an end. And we might go on and on with
the things of this world, the sufferings and persecutions and
troubles and trials and so forth, all of which are going to end
soon. They're all temporary. Don't be overly concerned about
these things. Look not at the things which
are saying. Rather, watch this now. Look
at the things not saying. And this is where I've been headed
this morning. How do we look at things not seen? Just one
way to do it. Eyes of faith. Eyes of faith. Faith, it says, is the substance
of things hoped for. Now watch this. The evidence
of things not seen. Not seen. Faith has God-given eyes. It
sees what no unregenerate man can see. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians
2, he said, I hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for them
that love him, but God hath revealed them unto us. No unregenerate man can see these
things. Listen to this. Here's another
description of faith in Hebrews 11. By faith Moses forsook Egypt,
not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured, seeing
Him who is invisible. I preach an invisible gospel. It's invisible. We talk about
heaven and hell, neither one of which any of us has ever seen. We talk about the Holy Ghost,
but He's the Invincible God. His presence can be known by
His work. We talk about Christ bearing
our sins in His own body on the tree. But that wrath He bore isn't
something you can see. You just saw the result of it
with Him on the cross. We preach an invisible gospel.
We preach the eternal God, whom we cannot see, making for us
an eternal covenant of grace, which we've never seen, appointing
His Son as our surety, which we've never seen. We preach that
our Lord and Savior created all things by the word of His power
and maintains all things according to His own purpose of grace.
We preach a spirit that worked in the minds and hearts of men,
causing them to write things down in a book. And we say, this is the Word
of God. Huh? But you didn't see him write
it, and you didn't see him that influenced it. Every man, all
men and women. Listen, we preach to follow man
in the garden. I wasn't in the garden, was you?
I wouldn't know anything about it except God's record that I've
read about it. Things not seen. By one man,
sin entered into the world. Death by sin. So death passed
upon all men. We can't see sin. That's why we run back to our
deeds. That's sins with an S. The transgression of the law.
Sin is a nature. You can't see it. It's a nature. We were children
of wrath by nature. You can't see sin. We preach
a representative man, a federal head whose coming was to save
us from our sins, and we're told he was delivered for our offenses.
raised again for our justification. We're told he stepped onto a
cloud and was received up into glory. Every transgression concerning
the salvation of sinners took place where no man could see
it. It took place in glory. It took place there. We saw the
suffering. We saw the suffering. And when
our Lord was raised from the dead and ascended on a cloud,
He was taken up, Acts chapter 1 verse 9, and a cloud received
Him out of their sight. They just saw Him for a minute,
and then He was gone. We preach a victorious Christ
sitting at the right hand of God. We preach one that will
soon come and fold up this universe and judge men and angels. But
I've got nothing to show you but the Word of God. Faith sees and hopes for what
can't be seen. Listen to this, Romans 8, verse
24. We're saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why does
he yet hope? But if we hope for that which
we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. And likewise, in
this same manner, the Spirit helpeth our infirmities. We don't
even know how to pray. But the one you can't see, He
makes intercession for you according to the will of God. God worketh in us, it says, both
to will and to do of His good pleasure, but you can't see Him. We're made meager, given the
ability to be partakers of the inheritance of saints in light.
We endure all things, he said, while we look not at things which
are seen, but at things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. May God give us eyes to see what
can't be seen. You know what he said in Peter?
We love him whom we have not seen. And Paul said we've got this
treasure, what a treasure, the revelation of God. We've got
this treasure, this invisible gospel, we've got it in an earthen
vessel. And it doesn't take the wisdom
of a man to convince another, not at all. It's just an earthen
vessel. Why? That the excellency of the
power might be of God and not of us. That's why he's going
to get the glory for it. All I have to do is tell you
the truth. Tell you the truth. And he'll
either reveal it to you or he won't. He won't. And that's why I can preach the
same as Paul did. and submit my preaching to every
man's conscience in the sight of God. Do with it what you will.
There it is. Our Father, we thank you. Thank
you for your Word. Oh, what would we do without
the Word of God? Where would we begin? We'd be
left to our imaginations as this world is. We'd be looking to
things within, things made up, things people say. We'd be so
scrambled up in religion that we'd never, never know God. We're thankful for Your Word.
We're thankful for Your Spirit. Your Spirit that helps us to
discern the truth. Help us to rightly divide the
truth. And then we thank You for Your
Spirit that reveals that truth to men. Help us, our Lord, as
we live out our days in this world, be faithful to this gospel. We ask it for Christ's sake.