2 Corinthians chapter 4. The message I've prepared, and
I hope the message that God will have you to hear, is concerning
the gospel of light. Light. This is what it's called
in the Scripture. Our Lord began to preach the
gospel when John the Baptist was cast into prison. He left
Nazareth. He went straight to Capernaum
on the sea coast. And he did so to fulfill the
words in Isaiah 9, 1 and 2, which say, to them which sat in the
region and shadow of death, life is sprung up. How do I know that's
what that says? Because Matthew recorded it in
Matthew 4, verse 16. Paul wrote to Timothy of God's
eternal purpose and grace in Christ Jesus and told him this,
it's now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus
Christ who has abolished death, now listen, and has brought life
and immortality to light. How? Through the gospel. Through
the gospel. 2 Timothy 1.10. The gospel of
Jesus Christ is the light of God which he shines in the hearts
of chosen sinners to bring them to repentance and faith. Nothing
else will get the job done. This is where it's at. This is
how it comes. And this is the result. Now,
I do not wish to understate nor do I wish to oversimplify the
doctrines of repentance and faith. But a simple definition of repentance
is to turn, to turn. When will a man turn? When he
hears the truth, when he hears the truth. When he recognizes
the truth, he'll turn. You're walking along in total
darkness. Bad storm like we had the other
night comes along, electric goes off, you're out there and it
pits dark. You're walking through the house
and you remember you left the flashlight there and you get
it in your hand and you turn it on and boom, right there's
a wall. Two more feet, you just run right into the wall. This
light comes and you see things that you never saw and you turn,
you turn. You'll never turn until you see
those things. You'll never turn. You'll never
turn until God turns on the light, and God turns on the light in
the gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And a simple definition of faith
is to believe the testimony of God which He's given of His Son
concerning the salvation of our souls. All right, let's take
another step. The only way you'll ever turn
from your present direction and way is for God to send the light
of His gospel into the darkness of your sin-born soul and reveal
to you what you really are. What you really are. We are what
God says we are. But we don't know it. We're not
aware of it. We just go through life. Go through
life and we do this and do that and make this decision, make
that decision. But we don't really make those
things or decide those things with a full understanding of
what we are. What we are. But when he shines
the light of his gospel into the darkness of our sin-born
soul, he reveals to us what we really are by nature and by choice
and by practice. And the only way you'll ever
believe in and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is to hear
this gospel of light and see the Lord Jesus Christ exalted,
victorious, and reigning at the right hand of God. Now, there
are five things that Paul declares to the Corinthians concerning
his office as a minister and those who are called of God to
believe what he preached. He begins in verses 1 and 2 of
2 Corinthians chapter 4 to state His office and calling. Now,
as I said to you earlier when I read this chapter to you, He's
already defined the ministry, what it is, how it's effectual,
who gave it to Him, and so forth. He does all that in 2 Corinthians
chapter 3. It's pretty plain if you read
it. But here in chapter 4, he says, therefore, seeing we have
this ministry. We have it. How did he get it?
Where did it come from? God gave it to him. God gave
it to him. God calls men into His ministry,
and those He calls do not depend on anybody else's approval or
confirmation. Now, I'd like to have that confirmation. I like to have other ministers
of grace to assure me that these things that I'm preaching are
true and that they're convinced that God has called me. I like
to have those, but I don't absolutely have to have them. I don't absolutely
have to have them. God has convinced me, and He
does of every man that He calls, that we are His ministers And
I don't really need anybody's approval. Secondly, he says,
as we have received mercy. The man who's never received
mercy can't preach to others about the mercy of God. It's
an impossibility. Old Brother Barnard, he was famous
for his sayings and his quaint way of putting things, but he
said a man He can't tell what he don't know
anymore and he can come back from somewhere he hasn't been.
That's the truth. If you've never received mercy,
what do you know about mercy? Nothing. Nothing. But Paul said
he had received mercy. God was merciful to him. Thirdly, he's renounced, he said. I have renounced the hidden things
of dishonesty. What in the world does that mean?
That's something you've seen back in the Middle Ages, wasn't
it? They'd tie them up and torture them and try to get them to renounce
what they were preaching and renounce what they believed.
To renounce something is to disown it. It's to say, I don't want
any part of it. It's to reject it. Say, no, I
don't believe that. It is to disclaim it. You don't
give any part of any kind of a confirmation of it. You disclaim
it. There was a time in his ignorance
and fallen nature that he was deceived and believed himself
to be a child of God and an elder among God's people. I'm talking
about the Apostle Paul. He was so jealous that he went
and sought papers so he could go get Christians and put them
in prison or put them to death. None were more zealously active
in the Jewish religion than Saul of Tarsus. But God exposed what
he called his ministry for what it was. And when he did, Paul
renounced it. And so will you if God ever shines
light into your soul. You keep hanging on to those
things of religion, hanging on to this and hanging on to that.
You'll quit hanging on to it when you see what it is. He renounced it. And then he
says this, not handling the Word of God deceitfully. What does
a man do when he handles the Word of God deceitfully? Well, he uses partial quotes
to justify his remarks. He'll take something out of context,
like that verse over in 2 Peter, and he'll say, not God's will
that any should perish. But now wait a minute, that's
not what that verse says. That verse says God is long-suffering
to usward, not willing for any to perish. And he's talking about
that second coming and absolute destruction of this world. And
he said God's preserving this world, not willing that any of
his elect should perish, but that they should all come to
repentance. So they use those things, and you can twist the
scriptures around and get bits and pieces. You can quote a part
of the scripture. You know, Judas went out and
hung himself. Now, go and take another little
part, go ye and do likewise. You can make the scriptures say
anything you want it to by just using it deceitfully, taking
little bits and pieces, and also reading things out of context. I've heard this preached. Oh,
this was one of the favorite verses in the Nazarene church
I grew up in. Whatsoever a man soweth, that
shall he also reap. Do you know the context of that
verse? Do you know what it means? It's
talking about offerings. Now, you want to sow to the pleasure
of your flesh and buy you a big easy chair and buy you a boat
and a big fine car and all these things, and you sow all that
to that, you reap the benefits of it. On the other hand, if
you take your energy and take your money and pour it into a
gospel evangelism, pour it into a church, pour it into the things
of God, you're going to reap the benefits of that. Whatsoever
a man soweth, that's what he'll reap. Paul said, We've renounced those
hidden things of darkness, and we don't handle the Word of God
deceitfully. I'll show you, I'll have you
turn to it, I'll have you look at the context, and I'll read
more than just a piece of a verse. The Word of God. Now listen to
me. He not only had denounced these
things, but now He says that He just simply preaches the truth,
just simply preaches the truth. The Word of God, God's testimony
concerning His Son and the sinner, and the purpose of God in His
Son to save sinners for the glory of His name. He just simply states
that, simply tells you that. People come here for a little
while and they quit coming, and all He does is just rehearse
the doctrines. He just rehearses the doctrines.
I'm just simply declaring to you the truth. That's what I
do. I'm not going to get some kind
of program in here and go talk to our men and devise this little
plan that toward the end of the message I'll get a piano player
up here and she'll play and I'll get somebody that's really blessed
with the talent and they can come up here and sing and then
I can start telling you sad stories about a dog or something and
get you down the aisle. No. I just preach to you. I just
tell you the truth. I ain't got any power to make
you believe it. I'm going to tell you the truth. That's what
Paul saw. He renounced those things. He quit handling the Word of
God deceitfully because he understood. The light of the gospel came
into his heart and he understood what he was doing. Doesn't try
to drag men to the front or lead them down the Roman road to salvation
or make his hearers feel sorry for Jesus. He just preached the
truth. Now watch this, and commended
his station, his ministry, his station as God's messenger and
his message to every man's conscience in the sight of God. When I'm done preaching here
this morning, I will have said what I believe to be the truth,
and then I'll leave it in God's hands. I'm going to leave it in His
hands to convince you of its validity or leave you to yourself
to either reject it or just treat it with indifference. Therefore,
seeing we have this ministry, Its ministry is to faithfully
preach the truth, leaving what we've said to be settled in the
minds and hearts of our hearers. All right? That's the first thing.
Here's the second thing. A great obstacle. What are you talking about? Well,
an obstacle is something which stands in the way. It's something
which holds up the progress. It's something which hinders.
It hinders. 2 Corinthians 4, 3. If our gospel be hid, it's hid
to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded
the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them. I know that the sovereign God
of glory controls and arranges all things. Before Satan could
tempt Job, he must have God's divine permission to do so. He
couldn't just run up there and start smiting him with bowls
and all this nonsense. It took God's permission. And God said through, I'm talking
about the God-man Christ Jesus said to his disciples, he said,
you see that sparrow in that fence post? Not even he can fall
to the ground without your father. Do not believe the fallen angels
nor the fallen man was an accident or some unforeseen circumstances
that took God by surprise. So ultimately, the hiding of
the gospel is according to the just and righteous judgment of
God. Now that's just so. And I want you to understand
that. He talks about this over in 2 Corinthians chapter 2. Those
who would not receive the love of the truth, And because they
wouldn't, God sent them strong delusion. But now listen, James
says God, in James, I think it's chapter 1, he said, when you're
tempted, don't you think God did this? God doesn't tempt anyone. He's not tempted with evil, neither
tempteth He any man. So how does God send a man strong
delusion? He just leaves him alone. The
delusion is all around you. The delusion is in you. All God
has to do to send you strong delusion is to withdraw His means. Just fix it in His providence
so you don't come here anymore. That's all He's got to do. Just
create a circumstance. Create a reason. Turn you over
to Satan to buffet you. That's all he has to do. Just
leave you to yourself. You'll take care of it. You'll
self-destruct. So ultimately, the hiding of
the gospel is according to the just and righteous judgment of
God upon those who would not receive the love of the truth
that they might be saved. You read about that in Romans
9.18 where he talks about Pharaoh. God can show mercy and God can
harden. And then in 2 Thessalonians where
I already talked to you about it. But here in this passage,
I believe Paul is addressing the means, that which causes
men to be blinded to the truth. Now a lot of the old writers
believe that this small g, this god that Paul talked about here
was a misinterpretation, that it was a, Just one of those unfortunate
things that creeped in through the translation from the original.
But there's nothing in the original to make me think that. And also,
when I look at the context of what's being said here, this
little, gee, this little God who hides the gospel, what's
he talking about here? the God of this world, as Paul
calls it, is the God of men's imaginations. Now, he's not here
saying that Satan is a God. What he's saying is Satan's influence
through false religion causes men to have a false conception
of God. And this false conception of
God is what blinds them to the true and living God. I've had
men tell me that. My God ain't like that. Huh? You ever had somebody tell you
that? My God wouldn't do that. We're not talking about your
God. We're talking about the God of the Bible. You see what
I'm saying? Paul said, if our gospel be hid,
it's hid to the lost in whom, in whom, in that unbeliever,
in whom the God of this world hath blinded their mind. You
blinded their minds. And he is talking here about
what hinders me and what holds up their spiritual progress and
what stands in the way. I stand up here and preach to
you the truth. I read it to you. Romans chapter 9, Romans chapter
3, Romans chapter 6, Ephesians chapter 1, Revelation chapter
2, and I go through here and all these places and Isaiah and
so on and I read to you and declare these things and let you read
them with me. And all the while, none of these things are fitting
the pattern that you've got in your head, and you're just standing
there going like this. You see what Paul is saying? It's a spiritual and mental blinding,
and it's brought about by satanic religion, making men to believe
they already know God. Paul put it this way in his letter
to Titus, But unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is
nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God,
but in works they deny Him." Eternal life is to know God.
Isn't that what the Scripture says? It's to know God. John
17, verse 3. And then over in 1 John 5 and
verse 20, well, actually in verse 19, he said, of the world, the whole world
is deceived. The whole world is wicked. Wickedness. He talks about there
in 1 John 5, verse 19. We know. We know these things. And then he said in verse 20,
and we know that the Son of God hath come and given to us an
understanding that we may know Him that's true. And that we're in Him that's
true, and this is the true God and eternal life. What's the
very next statement John makes? Little children, keep yourselves
from idols. Keep yourselves from idols. What are the works, or the marks,
rather? What are the marks of a false
god? Well, according to Isaiah 45,
20, it's an image of a god that men pray to that cannot save. It's just a piece of wood, and
he gets an artisan. He describes it in detail back
in Isaiah. He gets a wood, a locust tree
or a cedar tree or something that won't rot. Something that
will preserve itself. And he whittles on it and he
carves it and he gets an artisan and he overlays it with gold
and silver and precious gems and things. He said this thing
can't talk. It can't help. It can't do anything. It can't reveal itself. It can't
do anything. It just hangs there on the wall
where you put it. Helpless. Helpless. According
to John, it's a God that can save apart from the person and
work of Christ. That's a false God. According
to Paul, it's a God who does not work all things after the
counsel of His own will. A false god is any god who is
willing to compromise his character to achieve his goal. A false
god is a god who is willing to justify a sinner according to
his obedience to the law. A false god is a god who is not
absolutely satisfied with the accomplished redemption of Christ,
but he requires something else. That's that little god. And it
blinds your mind. Blinds man's mind. to the God
of glory in Christ. Nothing stands in the way of
gospel light so much as the darkness and deceit of worldly religion.
That's just so. That's just so. When you find
it, you find what hindered the apostles and what hindered Christ
in the ministry all through the scriptures. You find it. False
religion. False religion. All right. Here's the third thing. The message. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 5. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves, your servants, for
his sake. We preach Christ Jesus the Lord. My friend, the gospel is a person. Without him, there's no gospel. There is no gospel. I want you
to listen to some of the Scriptures, and I pray that they will have
some impact on your souls. Listen to this over here in Acts
13, verse 38. Be it known unto you, therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins. How did it come? Through that
man. He went all the way back to Abraham
in this message in Acts 13 at the church at Antioch. All the
way back to Abraham. And he came down and talked about
David. He talked about all of these
things. And then he gets up here to verse 38. He said, Now, be
it known unto you, this man that David was talking about way back
yonder in the Old Testament, Through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins, verse 39, and by him all that
believe are justified from all things from which you could not
be justified by the law of Moses. How did it come? It came through
that man. Listen to Paul again in his letter
to the Ephesians. Ephesians 1, verse 7. In whom? That is, in Christ. We have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of His grace. How do we get them? Through this
man. Through this man. And also over
in Romans chapter 8, listen to this. Romans chapter 8 verse
34. Who is He that condemneth? Talking
about His elect. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who's even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. And then he goes on to tell us
that he was absolutely persuaded that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord." Nothing. Nothing. Why? Because of where
it's at, and who it's in, and where He's at. Our message is
Christ. Of God are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification
and redemption. That's 1 Corinthians 1.30. And
everything from eternal election to the resurrection of the saints
at the last day is by Christ, through Christ, and for Christ. Why? Because it pleased the Father
that in Him should all fullness dwell. That's why. Everything
God demands from the sinner What does He demand? He demands a
perfect righteousness. What does God demand? He demands
payment for your sins. Here's what you owe. How are
you going to satisfy the eternal God? How are you going to satisfy
divine righteousness, divine justice, infinite justice? How are you going to satisfy
that? You can't. God demands it from you. But you say, I can't
do that. I can't satisfy that. I know
you can't. And nobody else can either. But God, in the person of a man,
did. Did. He absolutely, fully, and
completely satisfied God's justice on our behalf. Everything God demands from the
sinner, He supplies by the person and work of Jesus Christ. And
included in this message of Christ is His Lordship. Oh, you're not
going to find that preached very often. What are you talking about, His
Lordship? Let me put it this way. Salvation
by Christ. involves a total surrender. I'm not talking about your decision.
I'm talking about your giving up. Giving up. Throw your hands up. I give up. It's a total surrender of all
things. You know, I'm 18 years old and
I just, you know, I don't I don't know if I'm ready to commit,
if I'm ready. I don't know if I'm going to
be able to throw your hands up. It's a total surrender of all
things to Him and a personal submission to His authority over
you. Now, He's Lord. He's Lord. Romans 14, 9 says, to this end
Christ both died and rose and revived. that He might be Lord
both of the dead and the living. What does that mean? Well, the
question has never been, what are you willing to do for Him?
That's what religion tells you. What are you willing to give?
What are you willing to do? That's not the question. It's
never been the question. The question is, what is your
Lord willing to do with you? Now that's the question. What
will he do? I don't know. I don't know. Will he pass me by forever? He
has some. He has some. And there's nothing in you and
nothing in me to make him personally come to me. It's all in him. What will he do? What will he
do? He'd be just if he left us to
ourselves. He'd be righteous if he ignored
us altogether. Well, let me give you some hope. He delights to show mercy on
my soul. He delights in it. He delights
in it. God gets no pleasure out of the
death of the wicked, but he delights to show mercy. And because our
Lord humbled Himself and become a servant, because in His humility
He was made in the likeness of men and remained faithful unto
death, even the death of the cross, God hath highly exalted
Him and given Him a name above every name, that at the name
of Jesus, at that name, at the name of Jesus, every knee shall
bow. Now watch this, of things in
heaven, the holy angels are going to
bow their knees before Him. Things in earth are going to
bow their knees to Him. And watch this, things under
the earth, they are going to bow too. And every tongue will confess
that Jesus is Lord, now watch this, to the glory of God the
Father. Without compromising that holy
name, He's Lord. He's Lord. Why did He have to
be made Lord? Why did He have to ascend to
the throne of God from this place down here and go up there? Why
is that? that He should give eternal life
to as many as the Father has given Him. He's the mediatorial King of
glory and everything He has governed and everything He has ordered
and maintained has been in full and complete harmony with the
character of God, including the presence of Satan in the garden,
the fall of man, the redemption of his elect, and the reprobation
of rebels. Everything's in complete harmony
with God. And everything in heaven, earth,
and hell is going to bow before Him and acknowledge Him. This
is what Paul's saying. We don't preach ourselves. We
preach Christ Jesus, the Lord. We preach Him. Or why not preach
yourself? Because I don't have any power
to do anything. I don't have any power to do it. I can't do
anything for myself, let alone for you. All right, here's the next thing.
The hope of all those who preach the gospel and the hope of all
those who hear it. 2 Corinthians 4, 6. 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. Now, the glory of God is His
character, but it's His character distinctly in salvation. Salvation. It is the attributes
of His person. God is love. God is almighty. God is unchangeable. God is all-wise. God is gracious. God is merciful.
God is also righteous and just. And justice and judgment are
the habitation of His throne. The glory of God which is manifested
in the person and work of His Son is primarily seen in how
God can be just and yet justify us. Guilty, worthless sinners. And him still be just. Here's the whole world. The whole
world. For some reason, I can't remember
how he states it. But over here in 1 John, I'll
just turn over here and take a second or two to show this
to you. Over in 1 John chapter 5, verse 19. We know that we
are of God. Now watch this. and the whole
world lieth in wickedness." Why, if the whole world, me included,
is in wickedness, how can God justify me and damn him? We're both guilty of the same
thing. Because of God's eternal election
of grace, because of his appointments of our Savior for us, and because
of His person and work. And because God, He was delivered
for our offenses and then raised again for our justification. In Romans 3, 24 through 26, being
justified freely by His grace through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood, to declare, now watch this, to declare
his righteousness for the remission of those sins. God, he has to
be righteous in the remission of sins. And these are sins that
are past, that is, sins of the Old Testament saints. and to
declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might
be just and justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." Christ
is set forth in the book of God as a propitiation for our sins. What's that mean? That means
that by which it becomes consistent with God's character to pardon
and bless the sinner. That's what it means. Probitiation does not procure
God's love or make God loving, but it's that which renders God
to exercise his love toward chosen sinners. And this is how God sets forth
the life and death of his son. And this is the great light of
the gospel which God commands to shine in our hearts. It is
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And when Paul said, for God who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness, he's quoting
here from Genesis 1 in verse 3 concerning that first day,
the very first act of God. He commanded the light to shine
out of darkness. And Paul draws a line from that
right over here to the Gospel. Right over here to the Gospel.
And there is, as the Holy Spirit inspired him to write in Genesis
and in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, a parallel to the Gospel. What are you talking about? Well,
the one who spoke in the first creation is the one who speaks
in the second. It's the same. The condition
is the same. Darkness, emptiness, and chaos.
Same thing. The remedy is the same. Light. The means are the same. The spoken
word. The results are the same. A clear
division between darkness and light. And the end is the same. God looks upon His work and declares
His divine approval with everything that He's done. Now let me give you this last
thing and I'll quit. The reason why God sends His
gospel by men instead of angels. Why don't God send an angel to
you? You'd be out on the lake in your
boat and nobody else is around. A mystical looking angel appears
before you in the trees and he comes down. Why didn't God do
it that way? Why does He send men? Men. Poor, ignorant, for the
most part unlearned men. Why does He do that? What better way to demonstrate
the power and sufficiency of the gospel than for a man to
preach it? And then for God to make you
understand it. Huh? Nobody who knows anything at
all about this gospel believes that he had anything to do with
the salvation of a sinner. He knows if God saved that sinner,
it was all of God. All of God. And that's Paul's
point. That's what he's trying to tell me. He tells them over in 1 Corinthians
2, verse 1, he said, when I, brethren, when I came unto you,
I came not with excellency of speech or wisdom, declaring unto
you the testimony of God. I determined to know nothing
among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And my speech
and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom,
now listen, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power. Why
would he do it that way? That your faith should not stand
in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. That's why.
Isn't that what he's saying over here in 2 Corinthians 4? We have this treasure in earthen
vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and
not of us. The gospel message of Christ
crucified, he's our righteousness, our propitiation, God made Him
to be wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption
to us. We simply declare the fall of
man and the reconciliation in Christ of His people and how
that was made possible by the purpose and power of God. That's
what we do. It's not mine to make the gospel
acceptable to men or to make men willing and able to receive
it. It's mine to declare it to men and wait on God to do what
He will with it. We preach, expecting the Holy
Spirit to demonstrate the will and power of God to our hearers. And what He does, also in the
hearts of His elect and in the hearts of them who do despise
unto the Spirit of grace. We have this treasure. Oh, what
a treasure it is. What a treasure. You don't have
to go very far to find out that there's not a handful of people
around who know this. Not a handful. And I tell you, the more you
look, the more precious it gets. The more precious it gets. Oh, may God be willing in this
area to use His gospel for His glory and makes them to see.