If you have your Bibles again,
turn with me to II Corinthians chapter 2 or chapter 4. I'm going
to take my text from verse 6 this morning. 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 the Lord Jesus Christ. In this passage, Paul, the apostle,
is talking about preaching the gospel. That's the subject that
he is addressing. And this is a subject that is
near and dear to the apostle's heart. In every one of his epistles,
He starts them out talking about, this is the gospel. One way or
form or another, it's about the gospel. In 1 Corinthians 2, he
says, I determined to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. In chapter 9, verse 16, he says,
Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel, if
I preach not the gospel. We know that in Romans chapter
1, he says the gospel concerns Jesus Christ, made of the seed
of David, exalted to the right hand of God. Paul always preached
the gospel. And when he told his pastors and those who followed
his preaching, about the gospel, He declared
that if anybody preached any other gospel than that which
He preached, that they should be accursed. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15,
He says, I preach unto you the gospel by which you are saved,
if you keep in remembrance that which I preached unto you, unless
your faith is in vain. Paul declared that his reason
for existence is summed up in the declaration that God is just
to justified sinners conditioned entirely on the person and work
of Jesus Christ alone. This is the ministry that God
gave to Paul. The ministry that he received
from the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is the only New Testament
ministry. I know when you turn on the TV
and listen to folks or read articles in the paper, they have all kinds
of ministries. Ministries to the sick, faith-based
ministries, ministries to the hurting, ministries to this and
ministries to that. There's only one ministry in
this world. It's the ministry that God gave
to Paul. The ministry that God gave to
every one of the apostles, all the disciples, and every child
whom He has called by grace has the singular same ministry, because
it's the one God gave to them, and that ministry is to declare
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And not only that, to
do it in plain language. plain language. I like theology
as much as the next guy, but I really strain not to bring
theological terms and theological ideas into the pulpit, because
all they really do is make people want to be smart. I would rather
be simple concerning evil and declare a plain message that
when the young sheep hear it, they can Grasp it fully. I preach in the short grass,
if you will, and the young lambs don't have to bend over to get
it, and the old sheep don't mind bending over to get it. This
matter of the gospel is it. That's all there is in this world. That's a value that we'll be
able to take with us when we go. In Acts chapter 20 and verse
24, Paul says, But none of these things moved me. And he was talking
about being in bonds and afflictions as he went to Jerusalem. Neither
can I like my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish
my course which I received of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
what's your course, Paul? To testify the gospel of the
grace of God. That's my course. That's my core. That's why I'm here. That's why
you are here. Now in the preceding chapter,
Paul has shown that this ministry, the gospel ministry, is not the
old covenant or not the law but of grace. That is another thing
you will find Paul dealing with in every one of his epistles.
The law and grace. Why? Because it is the issue
of all times. It's the issue from the beginning.
When the first sacrifice was made in Genesis chapter 4, the
issue was law and grace. How do we approach God? By the
sacrifice of blood, which pictures the Lord Jesus Christ, or by
the works of our hands. And Cain proved that he thought
himself to be God, because though he got angry with God for not
receiving his works of his hands, God didn't kill him. God said,
approach me with blood. He shed the blood of his brother
to appease himself. He realized that really the only
way anger is assuaged is if somebody dies. That's the real end of
it. Paul is dealing with law and
grace. Now the ministry previously addressed
under the old covenant, the covenant of works of the old covenant,
was the ministry of the letter of the law. Paul said this about
that ministry. It killed. It was a ministry of death. You
can read just what I read and you will find that to be true.
It was a ministry of condemnation and was a ministry that was done
away with. He said all those things. That's the ministry. And you wonder why anybody would
want to go to the law for righteousness? All they're going to run into
is condemnation, death, be killed. The ministry of the gospel, by
contrast and by opposition, is the new covenant and is a ministration
of life. It's a ministration of life,
a ministration of the Spirit, a ministration of righteousness,
a ministration that remains, a ministration that brings about
liberty and freedom in Jesus Christ. The ministry of the gospel
is the ministry that Paul possesses, and this ministry is a ministry
in a strange place. It's in dirt pots. That's how
he describes it in verse 7 of chapter 4. But we have this treasure
in earthen vessels. In earthen vessels. That's dirt pots, clay pots.
That's what you and I are. Now what can we do? If God tilts
us over, we can pour it out. That's what that means. You ain't
never seen a pot tilt itself, have you? You ain't going to
see one today either. If God tilts me over, I'll pour
this thing out. I pour out what God has poured
in, and that's all. That's the ministry. It's a dirt
pot, earthen vessels. The reason for that is that the
excellency of the power may be of God and not of the dirt pot
or the preacher. Look back at 1 Corinthians chapter
2 just for a moment. The same kind of language is
often used by Paul. In verses 1 through 5, he says,
And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency
of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
Now Paul just says plain out that he didn't use all his human
faculties to preach the gospel. He didn't use his abilities,
his natural ability. Paul was raised at the feet of
Gamaliel. Paul was a lawyer. If you read his writings, you
know that his arguments are absolutely impeccably beautiful, inspired
by God. God used Paul and Paul's mind
to set these things forward. I mean, his arguments are unbelievable. I mean, He comes from everywhere
on these things and always brings you back to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He says, For I determined, this was my determination, not to
know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness
and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the Spirit in power." Why? That your faith should not stand
in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. That's why
this gospel is put in earthen vessels, so that the excellency
of it will always redound to the glory of God. Men cannot
look at men and say, Aha, there's the power of God. It's what is
said by the man. And what they say, if they say
it right, will always redound to the glory of God. If I preach
in a manner that somehow I get some glory, I've not preached
the gospel. I've missed it somewhere along the line. It's that simple. If I draw your attention to me,
then I've missed it. I've missed it. We're just dirt
pots. Dirt pots. So the carrying out
or the accomplishment of this ministry is dependent not on
the talents and the charisma and studiousness of the preacher,
but wholly upon the mercy of God. That is to say a preacher
should study. That's what he's called to do,
to study and to preach. That's why we had the first deacons
in the church. Now we don't have deacons here
because we don't have enough members to have deacons. We've had deacons. in the past, but we haven't ordained
any deacons. The reason was there were seven
deacons for a church with probably 10,000 members. And that was
an early day. And a deacon asked me one time,
why don't you have some more deacons? I said, well, when we
get 10,000, when we get about, I think I figured out, about
1,600 members, we'll get our first deacon because that's the
ratio of what it is. Deacons were given why? So the
men could study, preach, and pray. That's why they're there. That's why they're there. A preacher
ought to study. Paul told young Timothy, study.
Study to show yourself proved unto God of work, but not needing
to be ashamed, but rightly dividing the word of truth. Paul says, therefore, in verse
1, we seeing we have this ministry as we receive mercy, we faint
not. We're wholly dependent upon God's
mercy to preach the gospel. And the gospel is straight shooting.
It's straight shooting. It's down to earth. It's plain,
unadorned, unadulterated declaration. In chapter 3 and verse 12 he
says, seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness,
boldness or plainness of speech. Plainness. What does that mean?
That's understandable language. The gospel is set down in everyday
terms without any inventions of men. Like the invitation, we don't
give an invitation. The church altar, the sinner's
prayer, grabbing people and bringing them down front, kind of a game-saving
type of deal. We don't play fast and loose
with the Word of God. He says, verse 2, But we 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." How do you commend yourself to another man's
conscience? There ain't but one way of doing
it, telling the truth. Now, Paul told Timothy to Or
was it Titus to preach the gospel, rebuke and reprove with all authority,
to let no man despise thee? Now I have been under some preachers
in my time who rebuked men. I despised them. Why? Because they didn't rebuke me
according to the Word of God, they rebuked me according to
their own ideas and convictions about certain things, you know,
and they just, you know, give me down in the country. I didn't,
I, but I'll tell you what, if you feel rebuked by the Gospel, you're not going
to hate the man who told it to you. You're not. We rebuke and reprove by preaching
the gospel, not by setting ourselves up as judges of men and telling
them what to do and what not to do. If the gospel tells you
what to do, and the gospel tells you what not to do, then you
won't have a problem with the man who tells you the gospel.
You'll accept and receive the rebuke and love the man that
told it to you. Because He ain't come at you
out of some personal idea or notion. That's not the preacher's
job. Note that Paul here in verse
2, not only refuses to employ these things, these inventions
of men, he also openly renounces them. He says, we renounce these
things. They say, well you ought not
preach against this or that. Listen, we need to openly renounce
the things of deceitfulness and craftiness and handling the Word
of God deceitfully. That don't mean we'll be ugly.
We need to say what we mean and mean what we say. The gospel
ministry is not about the preacher, not my ministry. It's about Jesus
Christ delivered by servants Servants, that's what I am. That's
what your pastor is. You say, well, what about pastoral
authority? Oh, well, you know, I know me, I like to talk about
that. We're to rule in the house of God in spiritual matters,
there's no doubt about that, because we have to give, the
reason is we have to give account for what we say to you, we have
to give account for your souls, what you've heard. That's why. But we're also your servants.
And we belong to you. Those three things are true about
every preacher. He rules in the house of God.
Oversees the house of God. He serves the house of God. And he belongs to the house of
God. I belong to you. All things are
yours. Paul said, we're yours. Paul
said that. We're yours. We're yours. We
are servants. Those who preach the gospel are
servants. Dirt pots, every one of them, for Christ's name's
sake. It is the preaching of the gospel which God has ordained
as the means to save them that believe. It's the only way it's
done. Well, what is the gospel? The
Bible does declare what it is. The Bible is plain about it.
We don't have to be weird about this. The gospel is God's record. God's record of His Son and the
glorious salvation He accomplished by the sacrifice of Himself,
by giving His soul unto death. The Gospel is the report of who
Christ is. You'd be surprised how many people
have no idea that. Ask them, who is Jesus Christ?
You can get ready to hear some strange answers. The gospel is
why Jesus Christ come. Do you know why He came to this
world? If you listen to most folks, it was just to express
that God's a loving God. He didn't come to express God's
love. He came to fulfill God's love. To accomplish God's love. Why did He come? What did He
do? He did what He said He's going
to do. He did what He was named for. He shall save His people
from their sin. Where is He now? That's important. Is He on a
cross that you can hang around your neck? A crucifix? Is He
on the end of some stick that some guy with a funny fish hat
carries around? Where is He? He's at the right
hand of the Father. Ever living to make intercession
for His people. He's been exalted. and earned
the position as a human being as Lord over all of the living
and the dead. That's where He is now. The gospel
is the declaration that God is just to justify sinners on the
merits of Christ alone and nothing else. It is the gracious, kind,
and wise removal of the sinner from the equation of the accomplishment
of their salvation. You know how kind it was for
God to leave you out of this? You know how gracious it was
of God to leave you out of this business of your salvation? Because
you know, if you know anything about yourself, had He involved
you, you would have messed it up. You would have messed it
up. Like an old fellow says, you
can mess up an anvil. That's what you'd have done if
God left anything to you. One thing, just one thing. Later
he'd give you one little thing, just a hash bread. This is your
part. You'd have messed it up. What grace to leave me out of it. Boy, that's
grace. That's the grace of God. The
gospel is the good news, the glad tidings that God has saved
His people. Not that He's going to, not that
He's trying to, not that He wants to, but He has saved His people. He's bestowed upon them all things
necessary for acceptance in His presence, and He's given them
faith to believe in and trust completely in what God alone
has provided for them. That's the gospel. Concerning
the gospel, Paul says that if it is hid from anyone, it is
hid from the lost. Look at verse 3. But if our gospel
be hid, it be hid from them that are lost. Now, there's three
kinds of lost in the scripture. Three kinds of lost. There are
people who are lost who are unaware of their condition. Same today.
There are people who walk around here lost who have no idea they're
lost. I've been that way before. walking around someplace, think
I knew where I was, but I didn't. I was lost. There are people
in this world, they walk around and have no idea that they're
lost. They are lost. Then there's the one who's lost
and aware of it. Now that person is aware because
God has made him aware. That's what the old poet said,
the sinner is a sacred thing, the Holy Ghost has made him so.
The person who's aware of his lost condition, that's a whole
other thing. I've told you this story many times about Scott
Richardson, told about going hunting up in the mountains of
West Virginia. Now we have wonderful, beautiful mountains here, but
the West Virginia mountains are stark. They're straight up. We
have valleys here, not that many left, but up there they have
hollers. And hollers are narrow. Houses are right on the edge
of the road. They don't have a yard. The house, the front
porch, the steps reach the road. And if you drive off the road,
you'll hear somebody's house. He was up there hunting in West
Virginia. And it was one of those cold, snowy days. And it was
awful bitter and cold. Scott's friend got to being too
cold. He said, Scott, I'm going back
to the car. I can't take this any longer. Scott and his other
fellas, they stayed out hunting for a while. And they was moving
around in the snow and listening. looking for game, and they heard
something way off in the distance. So, like I hear, just sort of
a, what's that? Couldn't figure out what it was,
so they started walking toward the sound. And they come to find
out that the fellow who had left them to go back in the car got
lost. Couldn't find him. They found him sitting under
a tree, screaming at the top of his voice. Where's the car? Where's the car? He knew His
law and what He did. He cried out. If you ever find
out you're lost, you will too. Where's the Savior? I need the
Savior. That's what it is to know you're
lost. And then there's this third category mentioned here. Lost
and blinded. Lost and blinded. Third category. The lost here are the same as
those that believe not, in verse 4, in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. They are unbelievers, but they
are unbelievers in a peculiar or a particular sense. The wording
here is important. Though it is clear that Satan
has blinded these folks' minds, he did not make them lost. That's
not what it says. But if our gospel be hid, be
hid from them that are lost, in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them that believe not. He didn't make
them lost. He blinded them. Nor did he make
them unbelievers, as if they were neither before he blinded
their minds. their lost condition and unbelief
of the just inheritance of their birth in sin as sons of Adam. The blinding of their minds came
at a later time, and according to the context, their unbelief
at that point in time ceased being a general common condition
and became a specific mindset. Their unbelief now has specifically
to do with the gospel. That's the context in which this
is written. Also, since this passage begins with the word,
therefore, this entire passage has to do with the two ministrations
referred to in chapter 3, the Law and the Gospel. It is clear
that Satan is used by God to hide the gospel. There's no doubt
about that. But even though he is the God
of this world, the prince of the power of the air, his power
is derived power. He has no intrinsic power. His power to do his horrible
deeds must come from God, for no one has power to do anything
except it be given him by God from above. The fact that God
commands the light of the gospel to shine in some hearts, as we
read in verse 6, is an unqualified proclamation that Satan's power
is limited to those, now listen very carefully, Satan's power
is limited to those from whom the gospel is hid. That's where
Satan's power is. Among those from whom the gospel
is hid. Does Satan hide the gospel? No. God hides the Gospel, and Satan
blinds the minds of those whom God hides the Gospel from. The
hiding or the revealing of the Gospel belongs to God alone. Belongs to God alone. Our Lord
said in Matthew chapter 11, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, for Thou hast hid these things from the wise and
the prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. That was hid
these things. You mean God hides the gospel
from some people? Our Lord said He hid it from
two groups right there in Matthew chapter 11. Those that despise
His ministry and those that despise John the Baptist's ministry.
And the Lord didn't say, you know, it's sad Father that this
has happened. It's just a sad circumstance and I wish it was
different. Our Lord said, I thank Thee, O Lord, My Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, that Thou, I thank Thee, that Thou hast
hid these things from the wise and the prudent, and revealed
them unto babes. No man knoweth the Father, but the Son. No man
knoweth the Son, but the Father, and He to whomsoever the Son
will reveal Him. Our Lord said in Proverbs 25,
2, It is the glory of God to conceal a thing. It's the glory
of God to conceal things, Proverbs 25. Satan is used to blind the
minds of them from whom the gospel is hidden, who are lost and whose
unbelief is centered on rejection of the gospel while adhering
to the law for justification. How does Satan blind the mind
of these folks? Well, if religion is to believe, He does it in
the bars and the bordellos, the movie shows and the internet
and the crack houses and rock and roll music. If religion is
to be believed. However, if the Bible is believed,
He does it with a cover. He does it with a cover. The
word blinded means to put a veil over. To put a veil over. That's what this word means.
What is that veil? We just read about it. Chapter
3 and verse 13, And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face,
that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look at the end
of that which was of Abolish. Now why did Moses put a veil
over his face? People couldn't stand to look at him. They couldn't stand to look at
him. Why? They turned their eyes from him. Was it because he glowed
in the dark? Was he suddenly become nuclear?
What happened? Was it like Charlton Heston,
his hair just turned white and was swept back in a new hairdo
all of a sudden after he divided a part of the Red Sea or after
he saw the Lord at the bush? Why? Couldn't they look at his
face? According to this passage, because
he got it. He understood. He understood what God had said.
and the glory of his understanding was such that when people looked
in his eyes, they didn't know what he was, they couldn't stand
to look at him. You've had that happen to you. Tell people about
the gospel. Now I'm not talking about arguing,
I'm just talking about telling them what God's done for you. You look
at you kind of strange. You don't understand what you're
talking about. There's a reason for that. There's a veil over
their eyes. But their minds were blinded
For until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in
the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away with
Christ. So people read the Old Testament. If that veil is still
there, they think they must apply to the Old Testament and the
Old Covenant for salvation. We have that in religion all
over America. People say you got to keep the Ten Commandments.
Go ahead. You can't. Nobody ever has. Even to this day when Moses is
read, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, even
today, men don't seek Christ because the veil is upon their
heart. That's how Satan blinds men.
Not in drunkenness. not in adultery, not in whoremongering,
not in homosexuality, not in all the horrible things that
people talk about, abortion, not that way. Satan blinds men
by having them read the Bible and come up with the idea that
they can establish and produce a righteousness that God will
accept. It's so reasonable, isn't it?
This blindness is so reasonable to me. Wayne Robinson told me
one time about preaching, talking to a lady when he was running
that fabric store, telling her the gospel. She said, that makes
so much sense. But don't we have to have some
kind of rules? Some kind of laws to govern us? That's what people think. And
so when people read the Old Testament, whether they claim to be Christians
or not. They read the Old Testament,
and they read Genesis, and they read about that beast slain,
and they read about Cain and Abel, and they read about Abraham
being called, and they read about Isaac and Ishmael, and all those
things. They read those things. You know
what they see? You know, if I straighten up my life, God will accept me. What's happened? They've rejected
the gospel. And Satan has put a veil over
their eye. A veil over their eye. And unless you turn to Christ,
that veil will stay over your heart until the day you die.
But if you turn to Christ, the veil is taken away. That's what it says. The veil
is taken away. The word blinded means veil. The cover that Satan puts over
the minds of unbelievers is the ministration of condemnation,
keeping the law for righteousness. His ministers are called ministers
of righteousness. In 2 Corinthians 11, verses 13-15,
they're false prophets, but they're ministers of righteousness and
angels of light. The cover that Satan puts over
the minds of the unbelievers is the ministration of condemnation.
He blinds their minds, now listen very carefully, by leading them
into the rebellion that causes them to believe that they can
be saved, indeed are saved, by their own merit. the merit that
they have by themselves produced a righteousness and by themselves
manufactured life and therefore do not believe or need to believe
that God accepts sinners only because Christ Jesus the Lord
died for them in the Roman state. This satanic gospel. What? This satanic gospel. Did our Lord ever say to a bunch
of religionists, Satan is your father? He did in John chapter
8, didn't He? Who was He talking to? Those
who were still under the ministry of condemnation. The letter and
not the Spirit. He said, Your father is a devil.
He said, If you are of God, you hear God's Word. You don't hear
them because you are not of God. This satanic gospel is an amalgamation. A duke's mixture of error sprinkled
with truth. Satan veils the declared will
of God by the presumption of man's will. Satan veils the declared
choice of God by introducing man's choice. Satan puts down Christ's righteousness
with the righteousness of man and speaks of God's salvation.
as being man's decision. That's what he does. That's a
veil. Thus those from whom the gospel is hid are judicially
blinded by Satan. He covers the gospel with the
law for righteousness. Don't think Satan is wearing
a red suit and got a trident in his hand and got a full tail.
Don't think that. He's standing in the pulpits
of this land and other lands declaring men ought to be good
people. He's declaring you ought to be
righteous in your life. He's declaring you ought to be
holy in your life. And this is how you do it. You
keep the law. And it sounds reasonable, especially
to those from whom the gospel has been
hid, especially reasonably. Now in our text in verse 6, we
see the glory and the power of God in the revelation of the
gospel. The gospel here is described
as light from God, illumination, understanding, and that light
reveals the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. There are
four things I want to look at, four things stand out in this
passage that define the light of the gospel and the manner
in which the people of God receive it. The first is this, this light
comes by sovereign disposition, by sovereign disposition. It says, For God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness. How do you have the Gospel? God
commanded the light to shine in your heart. Just as in the
beginning He said, let there be light, He said, let there
be light in Bill's heart. Let there be light in Ed's heart.
Let there be light. Reckon there's going to be light?
I reckon they are. By His sovereign disposition, God commanded the
light to shine. Now there are commands that God
gives that men cannot and will not obey apart from a work of
grace in their hearts. God commands all men to believe,
and men cannot believe because all men have not faith. God commands
all men to repent, and men can't of themselves repent. Both belief
as a gift and repentance as a thing granted to believers. However,
both of these things that God requires are also only received
and obeyed by God, giving and granting them. However, there
are commands that men cannot obey or disobey because men have
nothing to do with them. If God commands the light to
shine in your heart, can you disobey that? Well, that's stupid. You don't have anything to do
with it. Can you obey it? No. God commands it. It has to do
with God's purpose, God's will. And His will will be done and
never has and never will be dependent on anything that man does or
does not do. If He says for the light to shine,
you're going to get illuminated. You are. You say, well, I don't
want it. It don't matter. When it arrives,
you'll be glad you got it. You'll be glad you got it. In the will of God's sovereignty,
man is not a player. You know, that was one of the
finest things I ever learned when I learned the Gospel. Still
sometimes overwhelms me with joy in my heart. And I would
finally get your fingers out of this. Stop trying to do something
about this. Stop it. This is not your area. This is not your room. Man is not a player in God's
purpose. He is not an actor. He is acted
upon without any application to His will or His permission. He is acted upon. God does His
will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth, and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, What
doest thou? The very thoughts of His mind must come to pass. Why? Because He's God. He's God. I heard one preacher say, God's
in handcuffs and you've got the key. Can you imagine somebody
saying that? His God may be in handcuffs.
Mine ain't. The God of Scripture ain't in
handcuffs. He does as He pleases in heaven
and earth and all the deep places. And such is the light of the
gospel. I don't have anything to do with
it. That pleases me greatly too. Because if I was mad at you,
you wouldn't get it. I don't have anything to do with
it. I preach the Gospel. God commands it to land where
it's supposed to land. God commands it to shine in men's
hearts. God commands it to shine and
it shines. Nothing can stop it. Satan can't
cover it and the law can't touch it. God commanded the light to
shine out of darkness. Let there be light, He said.
He said that when the Gospel came home to you. Secondly, the
light comes on the wings of mercy. It is merciful light. God had
commanded the light to shine out of darkness. How great was
our darkness? It was that kind of darkness
spoken of in Exodus that could be felt. A darkness that could
be felt. Men are in darkness. Men love
darkness rather than light. This is the condemnation that
men love darkness. That light is coming to this
world and men love darkness rather than light. What a blessed sovereign
mercy for God to send some dirt pot to pour out the light of
the gospel to us. We were bound in the tomb of
death, wrapped in Egyptian darkness. Like the old poet said, blacker
than a thousand midnights down in a cypress swamp. But mercy,
sovereign mercy, willful mercy was on our trail and light was
on its predetermined course, guided to its precise target. It would not be denied. God has commanded the light to
shine out of darkness. The preacher draws the bow at
adventure. You remember the story of how
Ahaz was killed. He had done changed his clothing.
He didn't look like he was kind of like old that fellow down
there when Texas finally won its victory in 18 minutes in
San Jacinto. They had lost every battle up
to that point by that Mexican leader. I can't think of his
name. What? Santa Ana. Every battle. He had just whooped them good.
But he got him a little Mexican girl in his tent one day and
he wasn't paying attention. And the Texans moved up around
the river at San Jacinto, or San Jacinto. And they come into camp, and
he knew that he would be caught, so he put on a corporal's uniform
and ran away. That's what Ahaz did. Going out
of the Battle of Raymouth-Gilead, he said, I'm not going to wear
all these crowns and gold and stuff. I'm going to put on another.
I'm going to put on the breastplate of a soldier. And it said a bowman
took his bow and just pulled it back. I mean, he was shooting
out in the middle of the enemy. That bow, that arrow, went right
between the breast plates. Killed Ahab. Now, he drew a bow
at a venture. He didn't know where he was going.
That arrow was a guided missile. Guided by the hand of God. Because
God had told Ahab by the prophets, you can go out and you'll win
the battle, but you won't come back alive. The dogs are going
to lick your blood. When you come back, Israel won't
have no king." And he slapped him upside the head and put him
back in the prison. He didn't like that prophet. That's what I do. I have to pull
that bow back. I'm not aiming it because I don't
know who I'm after. I don't preach to one person
or another person. I don't pick out a person I'm mad at or anything
like that. I just let her rip. That's all I can do. But God's gospel is a guided
missile, a guided missile. The light of the gospel is a
laser of love. The hymnist wrote, ìLong my imprisoned
spirit lay, fast bound in sin and natureís night. Thine eye
diffused a quickening ray, I woke my dungeon flame with light.
My chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose, went forth,
and followed Thee.î Thirdly, this light is irresistible. Irresistible. For we preach not ourselves,
but for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness
hath shined in our hearts. He done it. Hath shined. I love what Robert Chandler,
who wrote a little book on 1 John, I love what he wrote about light.
I've got it stuck in a hundred places, so if I ever need to
get a hold of it, I can find it. I'm so bad about losing stuff
that I put away, but I've got this little thing put everywhere.
I used to carry a copy of it in my pocket and bore it out
just reading it because it's so beautiful, because it tells
about the light of the gospel and how it works. He wrote this. In the first place, light is
clear, transparent, translucent, patent and open, always and everywhere,
as far as its free influence extends. The entrance of light,
which itself is real, spreads reality all around. Clouds and
shadows are unreal. They breed and foster unrealities. Light is naked truth. Its very
invisibility is, in this view, its power. It is not seen because
it is so pure. For secondly, a certain character
of inviolability belongs to it, in respect of which, when it
comes in contact with all things, it itself is affected by nothing. It kisses carrion. It embraces
foul pollution. It enters into the innermost
recesses of the rottenness in which worms uncleanly revel. And yet it is the same clear
element of light still. taking no soil, contracting no
stain, its brightness not dim, nor its viewless beauty marred.
It endureth forever clean and clear." Clean and clear. That's what light does. It embraced
me. God shined His light in my heart. Can you imagine what was discovered
when it did? I can't. I don't want to think
about it. But you know what? The light's still there and it's
never been tainted by the foulness it embraced. God hath shined in our hearts. That light is God Himself in
Jesus Christ. If you have a marginal reading
in verse 4, You probably have a number by the word hath shined
in our hearts. He said he commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, but if you read the Martyrs, it is
He who hath shined in our hearts. Out of Zion, our God has shined. Christ is that light. He's the
effulgence of God's glory. The effulgence of God's glory.
Finally, this light ain't haphazard. It has a purpose. If the gospel
light comes to you, it has a purpose. Well, it's the purpose to make
me better. Are you any better than you was yesterday? Does
that mean the gospel is a failure? No. It must not be in its purpose. What's that purpose? Let's read
it. 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. If you have the gospel, that's
where it's pointed you, that's where it's took you, and that's
where it'll keep on taking you to the day you die. Your conversation,
your heart, your life, your pocketbook, your home, your children, your
wife, your husband will all be relative to the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ, or else you haven't received
this life. Because that's what this light's for. God commanded
it to shine in your heart for this purpose, to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God. When this light comes
sovereignly, mercifully, and irresistibly, it comes for the
purpose of revealing that all glory for salvation, for the
salvation of your soul, for the understanding of your mind and
heart belongs to God. And that glory is tied up lock,
stock, and barrel in the face, the person, the presence, the
countenance of Jesus Christ. If this light is in you, has shined in your heart. You
will, without fail, always give all the glory to God and will
disallow, disown, and disavow any glory for yourself or anything
else. This is that light. What a thing. He's walking in darkness. They that were walking in darkness
have seen a great light. Why? Because God ordained it, commanded it, and
it's happening. praise His holy name. Father,
bless us to understand and pray in Christ's name. Amen.