Good morning, everybody. If you
want to, turn to your text. It's 2 Corinthians chapter 4.
2 Corinthians chapter 4. Our focus
this morning is going to be verses 3 and 4. That's where we'll take
our text from. We'll probably end up touching on the first
six verses when it's all said and done. But the main text is
verses 3 and 4. Let's read that together. 2 Corinthians
4, pick up in verse 3. This is Paul the Apostle speaking,
and he says this, he goes, says, but if our gospel be hid, it
is hid or veiled to them that are lost, who are destroyed,
who are marred, who perish. 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, how did we get here? I think
it's important if we want to understand what's being said
in verse three and four, we have to go back up to verse one to
see what Paul said before this. Now, we considered verse one
a couple weeks ago, Tuesday night, but I want to look at it again.
Look at verse one. Paul says, therefore, seeing
we have this ministry, This word, this gospel, this good news,
this Christ, seeing we, every elect child of God, has this
gospel, has this good news. Well, what ministry is that?
What good news is that? I'll give you a few things. We
talked about this a couple weeks ago. 2 Corinthians 5.18, Paul
calls it the ministry, the gospel of reconciliation. What does
that mean? Every man is born to this world
with a wedge placed between him and his God. You know what that
wedge is? Let me read it to you. Isaiah 59 2 says, but your iniquities
have separated, they've created a wedge, between you and your
God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not
hear. That means exactly what it says.
Every man is born to this world with a wedge. His sins have separated
him from his God. There is no communion, there
is no favor, there is only wrath. But this is the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ on the behalf of all his elect. Everybody God
loves. Everybody God chose. Everybody God gave to Christ
in the covenant of grace. This is the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He took the wedge, the sin, and he made it his own. He bored in his body. He suffered. He suffered so sufficiently.
He died so well and so sufficiently. that that wedge was actually
removed for all God's people. And now, in that same passage
of scripture, it says, now God, to all those people, everybody
Christ died for, he says, God does not impute their sins to
them. You know why God doesn't impute the sins of the elect
to the elect? Because there is nothing there
to impute. They really are gone. Full reconciliation
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ was made between God's
people and God himself and this before the world began. And now
this is the call to every sinner in need of mercy. Every man who
can't come up with the goods, this is the call. Be reconciled
to God. The work's already done. Peace
has already been made. God's not angry with you. Be
reconciled in the person of Jesus Christ. That ministry, that's
the ministry we have. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians
3, verse 6, it's the ministry of the New Testament. What that
means is the new covenant. What he's saying is, if you're
a sinner, you can't come up with the goods. You can't do anything
to please God. You can't bring anything to the
table and say, Lord, save me because I, there's nothing there.
If that's you, you're not under the law. The law has been fulfilled
in Christ. It's already taken care of. It
has absolutely nothing to say to you. You're under grace. You're
in the covenant of grace, and here's how that covenant works.
God the Father chose you. He loved you because of your
union with the Lord Jesus Christ. He gave you to Christ. Christ
agreed to be your surety, and now the Father saves. He saves
you. He spares you for no reason in
you. It's completely dependent on
what Christ has done for his sake and for the glory of God. But in this covenant, where you
are a simple commodity, you have zero responsibilities. You're
not under the law. You have the ministry of the
New Testament, the New Covenant. You're under grace. In another place, let me read
you this. This is 1 Corinthians 16, 15.
It says, the house of Stephanas addicted themselves to the ministry. Now this is a ministry of reconciliation,
a gospel of reconciliation. This is a gospel of the covenant
of grace. But this is a gospel, this is
a ministry, this is a Christ that to all God's people, every
elect child of God, when God the Holy Spirit touches that
man and gives him life, he becomes an addict for Christ, an addict
to grace. Tell him there's something he
needs to do to be saved. If you do this, God will save
you. He can't hear it, doesn't do him any good. Preach to him
a Christ that's thwarted, who wants to save all men, is trying
to save all men, but he has to wait around to see if men will
make the right decision or do something special or whatever it is. Preach
that Christ to him, and he can't hear it. It won't do him any
good. He has to have the Christ who accomplished all. He has
to have God's free grace alone, not deserved, not earned in any
way. He's just like the prodigal son. You remember the prodigal?
He left, he left his father's house. He left for a while, and
he had a good time for a while, but after a while, he found himself,
he's trying to feed himself on the corn husks of the swine breeding,
and he just wasn't satisfied. And he thought, he came to himself,
by the grace of God, my father's house. That's where I'll find
satisfaction. It's the same with every believer,
with every elect child of God. We're never gonna fall away.
We're gonna be preserved all the way to the end. The preserving
grace of God has manifested this thing, that you're made an addict
for Christ. And you can go, you can wander, and you may for just
a little while, but you know what's gonna happen? You're gonna
starve. And eventually you're gonna come back. I have to have
Christ. He has to have done it all. That's the only thing that's
gonna do me any good. Now Paul says, therefore seeing
we have this ministry, we have this ministry, it's ours. As
we have received mercy, why do we have it? For any reason in
us? For any goodness in us? Know
according to the eternal great mercy and grace of God. That's
what made the difference. And here's the end state. We
faint not. We don't quit. We don't lay down. We don't become
disheartened. All this because we have this
ministry and we have the very grace of God upon us. That's
where he begins. Now look at verse two. Let's
break some new ground. What Paul's going to talk about in this verse
is the preaching of the gospel. And he poses it in two ways.
The beginning of the verse, he talks about how the gospel is not preached.
Second half of the verse is how the gospel is preached. Let's
read it once. Verse two, 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. Now he says this, he says, he's
renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. What Paul is saying
is, I don't hide anything. Now the gospel message is offensive.
It is the offense of the cross. It is offensive to the natural
man. And Paul says, we don't hide any of that offense. If
the gospel is truly preached, nothing is hidden. Everything
is bare out in the open for every man to see. And if the natural
man is offended by it, so be it. But for sinners, they're
going to love this. This is everything to them. What
would we hide? Would we hide election? Election offends men,
doesn't it? Before time began, God elected
a people. He chose. God is God. That's
what election tells us. God really is God. He chose a
people because he loved a people, because those people are eternally
united to Christ. Christ died for those particular
people, and those people alone will be the people who must be
saved. They are saved. They were saved
before the foundations of the world ever built because it was
the purpose of God to save them. We gonna hide that? Now that
may offend the natural man, it does offend the natural man.
It offends his sense of control, and so be it. But to the sinner,
to the man who has no ability, to the man who is a rotten, stinking
sinner, this is the best news he ever heard. Because if the
roles were reversed, if it was on me to make the first step,
to choose God, to believe on Christ, if I had to come to him,
here's who would be saved, nobody. Not a soul. But because God is
sovereign in salvation, because he did elect a people, those
people must be saved. What are we going to hold back?
Are we going to hold back the limited atonement? Because it
offends men that Christ died only for his elect? Are we going
to hold that back? Not in the least, because that
is the hope of every believer, that Christ died. And when he
died for those particular people, he actually and single-handedly
accomplished their salvation, leaving absolutely nothing done.
And if the reverse is true, and he died for all men without exception,
that means there are thousands, if not millions, of men in hell
right now who Christ died for. And that means the death of Christ
means absolutely nothing. It takes away our hope. But that's
not the case. Christ died for his elect. He
put away the sins of his elect and he saved his elect. Now the
question comes up. That's great. How could I possibly
know if I am one of these people? Let me give you a scripture here.
I'm gonna read this to you. John 10, 27. This is the Lord speaking.
He says, my sheep, my elect, hear my voice. And I know them. I love them.
And they follow me. What does the voice of the Lord
Jesus Christ say? It says, come unto me, all ye
who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Not
go and do. Not go and get better. Not go
and work something up to try to impress me. You come. You
come and you rest. You rest in the finished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Come and rest, come and welcome.
That is the command. And you know what the sheep,
the elect do? They follow him. They do exactly
what He commands them to do by His grace, by His power. They
come to Christ. They flee from their own works.
They get as far away from it as they possibly can. And they
cling to Christ and His cross. And they trust Him 100%. That's
what they do. Is that you? You find all your
hope, not asking if you're elect right now, you think you're elect,
I'm asking you this, is your hope found that when that God-man
died on that cross and he said, it is finished, that that was
the accomplishment of your salvation in total? Is that your hope?
You have faith. That means you're a sheep. That
means God loved you before the foundations of the world were
ever built, that Christ died for you. He says, we've renounced
the hidden things of dishonesty, and he says, and not walking
in craftiness. You know what craftiness is? It's twisting,
twisting. This is where the word is used
in another place, 2 Corinthians 11 three. Paul says, but I fear,
lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety,
same word as craftiness, subtlety. So your mind should be corrupted
from the simplicity that is in Christ. When a man preaches in
craftiness, what does he do? He takes a scripture and he twists
it. He changes the meaning. He takes a verse out of context.
He takes half a verse and he twists it, and he twists it for
this purpose, the same purpose that Satan had, to pose that
there is another way. There is another way of salvation.
There is another way of acceptance with God outside of Christ and
being in Him alone. There's another way, and they'll
twist the scriptures to do that. But Paul says, we don't preach
in craftiness, twisting the scriptures, posing that there is another
way. We preach in simplicity. You know what simplicity is?
It is singularity. Singularity. Christ is everything.
Todd preached a message last Sunday. It was amazing. It was
on the Passover. And he has said this, I don't
know how many times during my lifetime, but he said that night
when the Lord was passing through Egypt, there was one thing he
was looking for. There was only one thing that
mattered. Were you in the house with the
blood over the door? There was one thing God was looking
for. It wasn't the strength of your faith. It wasn't how good
you were, how bad you were. It had absolutely nothing to
do with that. It's a simple fact. You were either in the house
with the blood over the door or you were not. That's all that
mattered. It's singular. What's my sin
atonement? The death of the Lord Jesus Christ
alone. What's my righteousness? It's
the life, the perfect obedience of Christ alone, not a patchwork
garment of my righteousness and his righteousness. No, this is
a seamless garment, not a seam in it. All his righteousness,
that's mine. Where's my faith? It's not in
Christ and it's in Christ alone, that's it. It's singular, we
have a singular hope. Not preaching craftiness, not
twisting the word to pose that there is another way, but in
simplicity, in singularity, Christ is the way, the only way. He
says, nor handling the word of God deceitfully. It's interesting,
what that's alluding to is adultery. What happens in adultery? Well,
here's what happens in marriage. A man and a woman enter into
a covenant, a covenant where the two become one flesh. And here's what happens in adultery.
Either one or both go outside that covenant to seek satisfaction.
Now, this is what it is to preach deceitfully. It's to pose that
you can find satisfaction outside that covenant of grace. It's
to point men to the law, saying there's another way. There's
another way to God. You can keep this law. You can
do something that will please God. You need to make a decision.
You need to do something to pose that there is another way that
satisfaction can be found outside the covenant of grace. Paul said
this, speaking to Timothy. It's 1 Timothy 1.8. He says,
but we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully. What
is the lawful use of the law? Because Paul says it's good and
it is. It's God's holy law, it's perfect. It represents righteousness,
it's perfect. What's the lawful use of the
law? It's to agree with it. What does the law say about me?
It says I'm guilty. And that's the purpose of the
law. That's the only purpose of the law is to slay us and
tell us we're guilty. Guilty before God, guilty sinners.
That is the only purpose of the law. That's the lawful use of
the law. What's the unlawful use of the
law? To disagree with it. Say, oh, I've kept it, at least
in part, at least in some way, and to bring that to God and
seek favor with God based on that. We boldly proclaim, don't
preach with any deceit whatsoever, there is no hope outside that
covenant of grace where Christ is surety and salvation is given
for Christ's sake alone. There's no hope outside that.
There's no hope in the law. There's no hope outside of Christ and
him crucified alone. That's it. Now Paul told us how
not to preach, how the gospel is not preached. But he ends
with this is how it is to be preached. You can look in 2 Corinthians
4.2 if you want. The back end of the verse he
says, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves
to every man's conscience in the sight of God. What's the
truth? Christ is the truth. Paul says,
this is what I did every single time. No matter what book I was
preaching from, chapter I was preaching from, verse I was preaching
from, my job was this, and this is what I did. I brought out,
I manifested the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and his work
from where I was preaching from. That's the job of the preacher.
He manifests the truth. He manifests the person of Jesus
Christ from wherever he's preaching from. And he commends himself
to men's conscience. He preaches the plain, unadulterated
word of God, the truth of the gospel, and he leaves men alone
with God. to see what the Lord's gonna
do with that. Not seeking results, not seeking gain of following,
he preaches the bare, unadulterated word of God, the truth of Christ,
the gospel, and he leaves men alone, alone with their own consciences,
to see what the Lord will do with that. Now, in light of all
that, go back to verse three of your text. We'll read it again. Paul says,
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, one of
the first things I see here in this verse is you get a threefold
description of the natural man here, the way every man is born
into this world. And here's what it is, he's lost,
He's blind, and he believes not. Now, what does it mean to be
lost? I'll tell you a little story. So Jamie and I started
dating when we were teenagers. And one day, we decided to go
hiking out at, I think it was Natural Bridge, something like
that. And we hiked all day. We had a good time. And after
a while, I stopped paying attention to where we were at. We walked
all kinds of trails. I wasn't paying attention. And
we end up, it comes in the late afternoon, we start trying to
hike back to the car, we're lost. It starts to get dark, dark enough
I had to pull out a flashlight, right? And you know what? The
only reason I know that we were lost then is in hindsight, because
at the time, I had absolutely no idea that we were lost. I
was blinded by pride. I thought for sure I knew where
I was at. I was telling her, she'd be like, are you sure? Because
it's getting dark. I'm like, yeah, it's right around the corner here, just over this
next hill. And it wasn't. But I thought I knew where I
was at. I would admit for a second that I was lost. I know where
I'm at. I know how to get out of here. I can do this. We're
not going to get a map. We're not going to do anything
else. This is what we're going to do. If you want to know the end of the
story, we found a little trail that took us to a road. We got
back to the car. It was fine. The point being this. This is
the natural man. He's lost. He can't find the
way. Christ is the way, the truth,
and the life. He can't find that way. But furthermore,
here's the issue. It's not just that he can't find
the way. He's not looking for the way. No man seeks after God. No man is looking for Christ. He has no interest. Here's the
worst part. This is the worst part. If he
does stumble across Him, If a man, the natural man, has the gospel
preached to him in this generation, and the God, the Holy Spirit,
does not make it effectual to that man, he will reject that
way. He hates that way. We're going to see that here
in a little while. No, he's content to walk on that broad way that
leads to that wide gate that leads to destruction. And you
can get on that broad way in many different ways. You can
get on that broad way as an atheist. You can get on that broad way
believing in free will. You can get on that broad way
believing that you're at least in the top 30% in comparison to
other men. You can get on that way in all
kinds of ways. It's a broad way. It's the way that seems right
to a man. It's a way that leads to a man getting some sort of
personal glory. Therefore, he follows it. He
follows it all the way to his own damnation. Every man that
is born in this world is in grave, grave danger because he is born
lost, separated from God. That's his natural state. He's
not just lost, he's blind. I want you to consider something
for a second. Let's say we took a beautiful painting. Let's say
it was a vase of flowers, something like that, right? And we set
it up in the middle of this church for everybody to see, right?
And we went and we found a blind man. Man who was blind from birth,
never seen anything a day in his life. And you marched him
in here, and you put him in front of the painting. You said, you
like it? He said, what are you talking about? He's blind. He
can't see. You could describe it to him.
You say, well, it's a vase of flowers, right? They're red.
What's a vase of flowers look like? I'm blind, I've never seen. What's red? He has absolutely
no idea what you're talking about because he is blind. Now our
text says this, it says, but if our gospel be hid, and that's
not Paul being wishy-washy, he's saying it is. If our gospel be
hid, it is hid to them that are lost. Now my question is this,
is the gospel hid? Is it tucked away in a corner
somewhere where men can't see it? No. Paul told us in verse
two, in every generation, somebody's preaching the truth. He's preaching
it plainly. He's preaching it clearly. He's preaching it without
deceit, without craftiness, without dishonesty. Somebody is bearing
the word of God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The problem's
not with the gospel. The problem's with man. He's
blind and he can't see it. And this is the third attribute.
He believes not. He's lost. He's blind, and he
believes not. Two scriptures came to mind.
John 6, 44 says, no man can come to me except the Father which
has sent me draw him. Speaks of inability. No man can
come to Christ. No man can believe on Christ.
By nature, he lacks the natural ability. But it doesn't stop
there. It doesn't stop there. Because
you could almost feel bad for a man who had no ability. Now,
if a man couldn't walk, you wouldn't go beat him with a stick because
he couldn't walk. You'd feel bad for that man. Here's the
rest of the story. It's John 5, 40. And you will not come
to me, but you might have life. Yeah, the issue is inability.
That's for sure. Here's the other issue. We don't want to. By nature,
we will reject the gospel because we believe that the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ robs us of some sort of personal glory,
takes away our control. And so we will reject it every
single time. That's the natural man right
here. And this is the common condition of all men. This is
the common condition of the Lord's people being brought into this
world. I want to read this to you. You remember this story. There was a woman at Canaan.
This is from Matthew 15. And she came to the Lord and
she said, my daughter's grievously vexed with the devil. Help us.
And this is how the Lord responded. I want you to hear this. Matthew
15, 24, he says, but he answered and said, I am not sent, but
unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now he confronts her
with the sovereignty of God in salvation. Would you catch that?
The lost sheep. Folks, even the Lord's people
are born in the world this exact same way, lost, blind, God-hating,
unbelieving. We were born the exact same way.
There's no difference in men. What made the difference right
here? What's he sent for? The lost sheep. The difference
is the man is a sheep. If he's an object of God's grace,
it's for this reason, because he's a sheep. He's loved of God. He's elected of God. Christ has
agreed to be his surety, but in that man, That chosen thing
right there, in that man, in and of himself, there is absolutely
no difference between him and any other man around. He's born
in this world the same way, lost in God-hating, blind to the gospel,
believing not. That's our natural state. You
know what a man like that needs? He needs mercy and grace. He
needs God to do something for him. He needs God to intervene
for him. Now what's the remedy for this state? Look at verse
four of your text. says, in whom the God of this
world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest
the light, don't miss that, the light of the glorious gospel
of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. Look at verse six. 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. What is this light? What's the
light he's talking about? Let me read you this. It's John
8, 12. Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light
of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Who is that
light? Christ is that light. But here's
the question though, how does he manifest to us? It says right
here that that light is life. How is Christ manifest to us
and to give us life? Right here, it says this. First
Corinthians 121, for after that in the wisdom of God, The world
by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. How does the Lord work? He works
through the foolishness of preaching. How does Christ manifest to a
man? A fool gets up, an idiot, a nobody. He gets up and the
Lord gives him a message and he speaks that message and he
stumbles all over the place and God the Holy Spirit takes that
message and he plants it in the heart of that man and it actually
gives that man life. That's what it does. And my question
is this, what does that look like? When man has light, when
God gives a man light. Paul saw some light. You remember?
Turn to Acts chapter 9. Look at verse 1 of Acts chapter
9. This speaks of Paul's conversion. His name is Saul before this.
Read verse 1. And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings
and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high
priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues,
that if he found any of this sway, the way he's talking about
is believers, men who confessed the Lord Jesus Christ, that he
was the Son of God. Whether they were men or women,
he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. Let's talk about what
Paul was up to prior to this. You go down to Acts chapter 7,
you have the stoning of Stephen. Stephen preached the gospel very
plainly and very clearly. You know what happened? The crowd
became in an uproar. They said, we want to stone him.
And Saul, Paul here, he consented to that. He even held the coats
of the men who did it. In Acts chapter 8, it records
this concerning Paul, verse 3. As for Saul, he made havoc of
the church, entering into every house and hailing men and women,
committing them to prison. You see, this man hated the gospel. This man hated the Lord Jesus
Christ. It wasn't a matter of understanding.
He'd heard the gospel preached very plainly and very clearly,
and he was a well-educated man. He audibly heard exactly what
the preacher had to say. The problem was he hated it.
It wasn't a matter of opportunity. He had heard the gospel preached.
It was a matter of being lost. He hated God. He made it his
business to go around and to terrorize any man who went about
to say that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, the only Savior
of sinners. He was the only way of salvation.
He made it his business to stamp that out. That's what it means
to be lost, right there. Look at verse three. And as he
journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly there shined right
about him a light from heaven. That's what we're talking about,
isn't it? A light. Look at verse four. 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 pricks. I tell you what, if you ever
see the light, if God ever shines his light on you, here's what's
going to happen. Exactly the same thing that happened to Paul
here. You know what the first thing that happened is? He fell on
his face and he called him Lord. And I tell you what, if you ever
see the light, if God ever shines his light on you, what you're
gonna do, you're gonna hit the dirt and you're gonna see for
the first time that he's the Lord, that he's the sovereign. Before anything else can be dealt
with, before anything else can be settled, this one thing must
be settled. Who is in control? In whose hand do you sit? Who's
making the decisions? If you ever see the light, you
find out you're in his hand. that He is the absolute sovereign.
You have offended against a holy and a God that demands perfect
justice, and you are in His hand to be done with as He sees fit.
He can save, He can damn, and it is completely and utterly
up to Him. That's the first thing you're
gonna see. You see this light. And then this question. He asked
a question. He said, who art thou? This is what happens when
a man sees the light, when the Lord gives a man light. He asked
this question, who is God? Because he sees for the first
time he doesn't know who God is. Who art thou? I know this. I know he's in charge.
I know he's holy. I know he hates sin. Who is he? What does he expect from me?
What are his demands of me? He asks this question for the
first time. Who is God? Because he finds out he doesn't
know who he is. He might have thought he did. He might have
thought he didn't exist. He had all kinds of thoughts. But for
the first time, who are you? I don't know you. Look at verse
six. 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. You notice he was there trembling
and astonished. You know what he was experiencing?
It's called the fear of the Lord. Now that is a fear that is born
out of reverence, It is a fear that causes worship and inspires
worship where you stand in the presence of the Lord and you're
so awe-inspired by his person, by his character, his holiness,
his sovereignty, his omniscience, his omnipotence. Everything about
him is so overwhelming, you just stand in awe. That's the kind
of fear there is. But there's another fear, this is inspired.
The fear of the Lord is this, you become afraid to look anywhere
but Christ alone. Because you see something to
yourself. Standing in the light of His holiness, standing in
the light of who He actually is, you get a glimpse of who
you are. And all of a sudden, everywhere you were looking before
becomes nothing. It's all dung heaps. It's all wood, hay, and
stubble. It's burned up. There's nothing
to it. And you become afraid to look anywhere but Christ alone
because there is nowhere else to look. You know God's only
going to accept one man. That's it. He's going to accept
Christ. There's only one work that is perfect before God. It's
acceptable for God. It's his work. That's it. And
you're afraid, you're terrified to look anywhere but Christ alone
because there's no other place of safety. And here's the question
he asked, what wilt thou have me to do? This is a life-changing
light, isn't it? Everything changes after you
see this light. You've got plans. I work here. We're going to move here.
We're going to go on vacation here. All of a sudden, the Lord
shines the light on you. Everything changes. And not anymore
is it, here's what I want to do. Lord, what would you have
me do? Would you have me pick up my family, move across the
country, go to this church? What is it you would have me to do?
Everything changes. But Paul was confronted by this.
It's in Acts 16. Remember the Philippian jailer?
He said this. He said, sirs, what must I do
to be saved? And I suspect Paul is asking
the same question here. Paul answered the Philippian
jailer. You know what he said to him? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved in thy house. When you're given light,
when the Lord shines the light of the gospel on you, you do
what you could not and what you would not before. You believe. You actually come to Christ. You actually trust Him. Now, this thing of faith, I can't
stress this enough, it has absolutely nothing to do with what we think
about ourselves. Folks, you can lack assurance all day long and
still have incredibly strong faith. Faith has everything to
do with what you think about Him. Is He able? If He's willing
to save you, is He able to do it all by Himself? Folks, I'm
convinced like that. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? If that's what you think about Him, that He is able, He
did it. You believe you're doing what
you could not do before and what you would not do before. Now
look at verse seven. And the men which journeyed with
him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul rose from the earth,
and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man, but they led him
by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days
without sight, neither did eat nor drink. This light, when God
gives a man light, it's light that causes blindness. I said
this to you last time I was with you, but I want to bring it up
again. Down in John 9, the Lord said this. He goes, I've come
to give eyes to those who see not, and to those who see, to
blind them. And the Pharisees said this.
They said, are we blind also? This is the Lord's reply. He said,
if you were blind, you should have no sin. But now you say
we see, therefore your sin remaineth. This is a good blindness. This
is a blindness that is caused by light. You know what happens? You know what kind of blindness
this is? It's when you look inside yourself, you can't find any
reason that God would show you mercy. You can't find any reason
that he would choose you. It must be for Christ's sake.
And for that man who can't see, who's blind to any reason in
him that God would show him mercy, your sin's gone. It's the evidence
the Lord has saved you. It's gone. Your sin does not
remain. It's been put away. Look at verse 10. And there was
a certain disciple of Damascus named Ananias. And to him said
the Lord in a vision, Ananias? He said, behold, I'm here, Lord. Now, to give you kind of an update
here, what we're gonna see in a minute, the Lord's gonna send
Ananias to preach the gospel to Paul. Here's the interesting
thing about Ananias. He's an absolute nobody. This is the
only time in Scripture you hear of Ananias. You think, who would
I have sent to Paul? Sent Peter, James, John, somebody?
The Lord didn't. He sent nobody. Ananias, the
only time you hear of him in Scripture. The point is this,
though. The Lord always saves the exact same way. He sent Paul
a preacher. He's going to preach Paul, or
teach Paul the gospel directly from himself. He's going to pull
Paul into the third heaven. But prior to that, you know what
he sent him? He sent him a nobody. He sent him a nobody from nowhere
with a message from God. He always works the same ways
through the foolishness of preaching. Look at verse 11. And the Lord
said unto him, Arise, and go on the street which is called
straight, and inquire in the house of Judah. For one called
Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he prayeth. Now this is what happens
when a man receives light. The Lord gives him light. He
prays. Now, he may have prayed before, but he didn't know who
he was praying to. He's praying to a false god, whatever vile
imagination he had of God. But for the first time, if a
man is given light, you know what he does? He prays. And it
sounds like something like this. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. I've always found it beautiful
and interesting. If a man ever does find himself
standing afar off from God, looking down, beating on his breast,
saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner, the only reason he
is doing that is because he has already been shown mercy. It
takes light to beg for mercy. It takes light to know that you
need mercy. And when that man stands there
and says, God, be merciful to me, the sinner, the only reason
he's saying that is because God has already been merciful to
him. He's just finding out about it now. Look at verse 13. Then Ananias answered. Lord,
I have heard by many of this man how much evil he hath done
to the saints in Jerusalem, and here he hath authority from the
chief priests to bind all that call upon thy name. Say, Lord,
you sure you want to send me to this man? I'm kind of afraid
of him. I mean, he's thrown every believer
in prison, I know. You sure you want to send me to this man?
Read on. But the Lord said unto him, go
thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me. to bear my name before
the Gentiles and the kings. Was there any moral virtue in
Paul whatsoever? He hated God. He persecuted the
church. He did everything he possibly
could to stamp out the gospel in his generation. There was
absolutely nothing to him. Why was light sent to Paul? Because he was chosen. He was
a chosen vessel unto the Lord. Who made the difference? God
made the difference. The love of God made the difference.
The choice of God made the difference. That was the only difference. Look at verse 17. We'll finish
it up. And Ananias went his way and
entered into the house, and putting his hands on him, said, Brother
Saul, The Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way
as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy
sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there
fell from his eyes, as it had been scales, and he received
sight forthwith, and arose, and he was baptized. And when he
received meat, he was strengthened. Then we saw certain days with
his disciples, which were at Damascus. And straightway he
preached Christ in the synagogues that he is the son of God. Immediately. Salvation's not
a process. Spiritual life is not a process. Yes, we grow in grace and the
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But when life is given, Life
begins. Spiritual life begins in a man. He has life. There's a day a
child is born, a day a child is not. That's it. Life begins
immediately. And when you have life and you
have light, here's what you see. Number one, Jesus Christ is the
Son of God. What does that mean? He's the
eternal one. He's the second person of the
Blessed Trinity. He is God himself, having all
the attributes of God, and he is the only Savior of sinners. He's the Messiah. He's everyone
that was ever prophesied in the Old Testament. He was Abel's
lamb. Everything. In this, Paul was
baptized. What does baptism represent?
We stand above the water. When He lived, when Jesus Christ
lived, and He worked out that perfect righteousness, when He
obeyed His Father in all things, His perfect obedience, that's
when I lived. When we go under the water, we're
saying when He died. That's when I died, that's when I was punished.
My sins were in Him. My hope is that He bore my sins
in His body and He died. And when we come back out of
the water, we say when He was risen, signaling and signifying that
full satisfaction had been made, that's when I was risen, perfect.
holy, unblameable, and unapprovable in Him. Saying, that's my hope.
And when a man has the light, this is what he sees. He sees
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He's God Himself. And my only
hope is that I'm in Him. And I've always been in Him,
and always will be in Him. Now, here's my question. I'm
gonna leave you with this thought. Who is Jesus Christ, Jesus of
Nazareth, to you? Who is this man? Is he the eternal
son of God? Did he come in the flesh? Did he do exactly what he said
that he did? He saved his people. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. You believe
that about him? This man, Jesus of Nazareth? Is your only hope
is that you're in him. that you've always been in Him
and you always will be in Him. Is that your hope of salvation?
You have light. The light is shined out of darkness
to give you eyes to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's where I'm gonna leave
you.