Light Divine

Second Corinthians, and we find
ourselves yet again in chapter four. As I said, the thought
to sing the great hymn that we just did was a rather impromptu
thing. I put John on the spot by passing
back a note. And the main reason that I wanted
to sing was because of the deep theology encapsulated in that
hymn, particularly verse 4. And that was what was in my mind
as I was thinking of the passage before us this morning. And also,
just the proper application of that in an expression of gratitude. Thanksgiving for what God has
done for us. And perhaps it would have been
easier if I just read this, but I upset the apple cart and switched
up the songs Not exclusively for verse 4,
but this was the apex of what I was thinking of. “…Along
my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature’s night.”
And so, the great hymn writer there pictures his own heart
and soul bound up in a deep darkness that was impenetrable by man. No way of escape. only God alone
could step in to help. And he goes on and says, Thine
eye diffused a quickening ray, a ray of light, a ray of glory,
representing the Gospel, the Gospel of Christ that came in
and like a shaft of light, shattered the darkness there in that darkened
prison cell of which only God could remedy. Thine eye diffused
a quickening ray. I woke the dungeon, flamed with
light. My chains fell off. My heart
was free. I rose, went forth and followed
Thee.” That is the ultimate for which we would consider in thanksgiving
this morning. And it also happens to be an
appropriate illustration for the passage at hand. I take you
back just by an exceedingly brief review. We began this study some
months ago, considering the Christian ministry all the way back to
chapter 2, verse 12, where we hit what we said was the bedrock
of ministry there in chapter 2, verse 12, where a door was
opened to Paul and that God’s sovereign providence reigned
and that Paul went on to advance what we saw were those five features
of the bedrock of Christian ministry. We saw the momentum in ministry
in chapter three, in those first six verses, we saw the glorious
nature of the gospel ministry in verses seven through 11. We
saw the great blessings of the gospel ministry. What is it that
we enjoy? There in chapter 3, verse 12
through 18, we saw the preparation we began last week in considering
the preparation for the gospel ministry, that we are to be steeled
for the gospel, totally ready. We need not only, as we saw,
a battle-ready resolve where we do not lose heart. And as
I said last week, there is much that would press us into losing
heart. There is more every day that
would Seek to make us quit this gospel ministry. But we do not
lose heart, as Paul said, that not only do we need a battle-ready
resolve, we need a sanctified strategy. And Paul said because
of that, we have renounced the things hidden because of shame,
talking not about his sinful past or even about his sinful
present, but talking about the shameful things that were added
to, heaped upon, even adulterating the very gospel of God. And Paul
said, we renounce those things. And we renounce them. And all
the while, we don’t leave ourselves, as it were, empty-handed with
nothing to preach. But we go about commending ourselves
to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. We hold fast
to God’s Word. We proclaim God’s Word. We proclaim
it clearly. And we will not be moved. And
yet, Paul’s critics and even our own critics would wag their
finger and say, well, if this gospel is so glorious, as you
have said, chapter 3, verse 12, chapter 3, verse 7 and following,
if this gospel is so glorious, if it truly is the gospel of
Christ, then why isn’t it more effective Why aren’t more people
saved? Why aren’t your numbers better? Why isn’t your rate of response
better? As I said, there is much that
mitigates against our confidence. There is much that begs us, encourages
us, constantly cries out to us to quit. There is much that presses
in on us and not the least of which is the rate of success
of the gospel of Christ. We tell people, we greet them
with great excitement, we tell them that we have good news for
them, we lay out to them that they are a sinner in need of
a Savior and that God has provided. And we do so with the humble
enthusiasm an assurance that God has sent us out with this
great message. We, of all people, have been
included in this great privilege only to have even people that
we love turn their noses up, consider us to be oddballs and
lunatics, Jesus freaks, And perhaps even then, our confidence
is shaken. Perhaps our resolve abates and
we lose hope in proclaiming the glorious Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We lose hope. We say, what good
is it? No one listens anyway. Look at
our society. My neighbor doesn’t want to hear
it. My boss threatens to fire me. My family members have practically
ostracized me. What good is the gospel if it’s
this ineffective?” Paul said, let’s talk about the gospel.
Let me tell you about the gospel. And what he wants to show us
is the nature of illuminating grace. Read along with me, if
you would. And just as I often will do,
I want to pick up verses one and two so we can get a running
start. at verses 3-6. Therefore, since we have this
ministry as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced the things
hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating
the Word of God, but by the manifestation of truth, commending ourselves
to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if
our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In
whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the
unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel
of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not
preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord and ourselves as
your bond servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, light
shall shine out of darkness, is the one who has shone in our
hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Christ. Paul had been battered and beat
up and maligned and falsely spoken of, criticized, scandalized,
scrutinized, And it was almost no matter what
Paul said, he was going to face criticism. And the obvious criticism
to which he responds here is that Paul, if your gospel is
really so glorious, why aren’t you more effective? Your numbers
aren’t what they should be. Look at ours. Said the false
teachers, the heretics that gave people what they wanted And the
crowds showed up in droves. But Paul went about conducting
this ministry. Some said he was too narrow,
that his gospel was obscured, that people couldn’t even grasp
what it was he was trying to teach. It was too simplistic. It was foolishness, said many. And so Paul turns here to uncover
to us and to the Corinthians in his day the nature of this
illuminating grace? What is it about this grace,
this illuminating grace that Paul wants to impart to these
people? Three things this morning. Three
things. First of all, this light, this
illuminating grace of the gospel of Christ, this light may be
obscured. Paul didn’t take it as a big
surprise that not everyone responded to the gospel of Christ. Paul
wasn’t surprised by it. He expected it because he knew
well the nature of illuminating grace. Look at verse three, if
you would. He said, even if our gospel is veiled. And he doesn’t
take that as merely hypothetical. He knew that it was the case
with many, many people. You could almost translate this,
since our gospel is veiled to some, we know it to be true. It’s an obvious reference there,
that word veil, back to chapter three regarding Moses and the
Israelites of whom Paul spoke as having respectively their
faces and their hearts veiled, covered, obscured to the light
of the gospel. Paul is doing here is responding
to an objection. It’s as if it were said that
you say that a veil lays upon the Gospel over the hearts of
the Jews. And when Moses was read that
your Gospel, Paul, your Gospel is manifest to all and not all
are responding. Your Gospel isn’t clear. It’s
not plain. It’s not evident. like you represent
it to be. Paul repeats this hypothetical
stated by them as a fact that Paul’s gospel was somehow veiled,
hidden, too obscure, too foolish to be understood by the reasonable
man. Even the majority of those who
heard Paul’s gospel rejected it out of hand. That much is
true. But Paul wasn’t surprised by it. Says, even if it’s veiled
and I know it to be. Even if it’s veiled, since it’s
veiled. Since the majority don’t even
grasp the truth of what it is I’m preaching, that doesn’t surprise
me. But even if our gospel is veiled,
it is veiled to those who are perishing. Even though it’s obscured to
some, Even to many, even though it’s obscured to those who are
perishing. That word, speaking of ruin,
being lost, utterly destroyed, it speaks of those who are literally
on the road to destruction. And it’s not that Paul speaks
of them callously or carelessly as if he doesn’t love them and
care for them and long for them to be saved. He just characterizes
them as headed for destruction. And that really is a description
of all of those who are outside of Christ, not just the ones
that have actively rejected Christ, but all of those. Who are outside
of Christ are on the path already to destruction. They are fallen. They are dead
in their sins. They are spiritually blind. They
are those who reject the gospel ultimately. But in their current
state, they are headed for destruction. Nevertheless, if the gospel is
rejected, even by a great number of people, the majority of people, It cannot possibly be blamed
on a message that is somehow said to be obscure. Paul said
that’s not the case at all. I take you back in your mind’s
eye to the parable of the sower. Remember the parable of the sower? Where there was success there
with this seed, but one of four soils. Remember, the seed was
sown, as it were, on four different kinds of soil. And even though it only sprang
up in one particular kind of soil, the obvious message there
is there was nothing wrong with the seed because the seed represented
the gospel. The gospel, once it found the
right kind of soil, grew and flourished. And likewise, there is nothing
wrong with Paul’s message here. That’s what he’s saying. There’s
nothing wrong with the message of the gospel. It isn’t inferior. It isn’t adulterated. It isn’t
watered down. It isn’t miscommunicated. Rather,
it is misappropriated. And better still, it isn’t even
really misappropriated. It isn’t appropriated at all. It isn’t taken in. It isn’t received
into the heart. It isn’t considered. It isn’t the fault of the Gospel.
It’s the fault of the hearer. Because they listen with an attitude
that’s fatal. It’s the fault of those who have
failed to discern the glorious nature of the Gospel. It’s the
fault of those whose state and character, as one said, of those
who reject it. It’s their heart, just exactly
as the parable of the soils goes on to say. It’s the condition
of the soil. Stated positively, Paul responded
to the Thessalonian believers and he put it this way. In 1
Thessalonians 2.13, he spoke so highly of them when he said,
For this reason, we also constantly thank God that when you received
the Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not
as the Word of men, but for what it really is, the Word of God,
which performs its work in you who believe. Paul said there is nothing wrong
with the gospel. The gospel doesn’t need to be
added to or tweaked or adjusted according to our modern culture. There’s nothing wrong with the
gospel. Even if our gospel is veiled,
it is veiled to those who are perishing. And then he adds this,
and so the good seed of the gospel is veiled, hidden from those
who Paul indicates are headed for destruction. And wouldn’t
you just know it that Satan is right in the middle of it? He
hates Christ. He would have every one of us
dull to the message of repentance and faith. He would love nothing
more than to bring every human to ultimate destruction. And Paul glides right into a
consideration of Him in verse 4, referring to Him as the God
of this world. The reason why So many are lost
who do not see the truth and the excellence of the gospel
is stated here as owing to none other than the devil himself. How is the devil called the prince
or the ruler of this world as he is so often in Scripture?
It is simply because for the present, he has a degree of power
in it. The devil has power not only
not over the whole order of God’s creation, but simply over this
current era or epoch. Satan is called the god of this
world because of the power that he exercises over the people
in this world and because of the obedience, the servile obedience
that we render to him. And it’s as simple as this. that
if you do not serve God, you are a servant of Satan’s. You
are a slave of the devil. That’s how Scripture characterizes
it. As Charles Hodge said, if Jehovah is not our God, Satan
is. Satan is frequently referred
to as the God or the ruler of this world. John 12.31, 14.30,
16.11. He is called the ruler of this world. Ephesians 2. Interesting passage
in verse 2 where it speaks of our former lives. He says, “…in
which you formerly walked according to the course of this world.”
And then you begin to see what is really behind society? What
is really behind the values or lack thereof? The fading mores
of our own society? What is behind that? None other
than the devil. We walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air.”
Satan. Satan’s back there. Satan’s in
charge. Satan is the one introducing
all these attitudes and mindsets. Satan has a relative degree of
power. He even claimed it before none
other than Christ Jesus himself. to have a degree of this temporal
authority. In Matthew 4.9, he said, all
these things I will give you if you fall down and worship
me. Satan had something to offer. He had something to give. And
in some degree, he is in authority at this current time, but it’s
a short time. Revelation 2.12 says it, 12.12
rather says that he has it only for a short time. And that’s
why he is so utterly active. The word that Paul uses here
is eon. It is for a limited period of
time that Satan has this power. Nevertheless. Nevertheless, in
all these cases, Satan is meant in those passages we just considered
And when you consider those passages, it is as if where John says that
the whole world, the whole moral and intellectual world is under
Satan’s power and control and sway. That doesn’t mean that
God has abdicated those arenas or has surrendered any portion
of God’s dominion, His great dominion over all things, but that Satan currently has
people who have literally placed themselves under his control
and find themselves to be completely captured, imprisoned. To use
Charles Wesley’s imagery, imprisoned in darkness. That’s where the
devil has them. Satan says one controls the ideologies,
opinions, hopes, aims, goals and viewpoints of the current
world. He is behind the world systems of philosophy, psychology,
education, sociology, ethics, economics. But his greatest influence
is in the realm of religion. All of the evil. said one contemporary
pastor, all of the evil of the human heart, crime and hatred,
bitterness, anger, injustice, immorality, conflict between
nations and individual is pandered to by Satan’s agenda. It’s all of the devil. The world’s
system that he has created inflames the evil desires of fallen people. He is their God. See, there’s another power at
work. In addition to our own fallen
wills, in our natural state, we are already headed for destruction. We already have a degree of waywardness
built in. But there’s another power actively
at work, and it’s the power of the devil. The God of this world to whom
those who are perishing have willfully submitted themselves,
and by whom their unbelieving minds are blinded, as Paul will
go on to say. What Satan has is a certain sway
over this whole present age, but it’s a sway that is a usurped
authority. It’s in no way permanent. It’s
temporary. It’s not even absolute in the
current state of things. And if you look at the passage
again, Paul points to the effect, the
ineffectiveness of the gospel, he says, is directly attributable
to the God of this world. Look at verse four. Picking up
in verse 3, even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those
who are perishing, in whose case the God of this world has blinded
the minds of the unbelieving. So, the good news of Christ is
hidden from most people because the devil has blinded the minds
of the unbelieving. And the question always is, are
they blinded by Satan because they don’t believe? Or are they
unable to believe because they’ve been blinded by Satan? My wife
knows that I love questions like this because the answer is simple. Yes. My wife doesn’t so much like
those answers. Both things are true. There is
an innate relative blindness into which we are all born. The best of men outside of Christ
are said to be blind. And yet that blindness is relative,
because in rejecting Christ, Satan shuts their eyes the more
tightly. And the result is that they are
ultimately blind to the truth, in an ultimate sense, to the
gospel. Which came first? Yes. Were we blind before? We disbelieved? Yes. Are we blinded by Satan
afterwards? Yes, all the more. In John 12, he records an interesting
statement by our Lord. It says that although He had
performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing
in them. They couldn’t grasp Christ because
their eyes were already blinded. And John goes on to quote a passage
of Scripture that is repeatedly quoted throughout the New Testament.
And it is so profound and it is so shocking. John records it in this fashion,
he says, this was to fulfill the word of Isaiah, the prophet.
Which spoke Lord, who has believed or reported? To whom has the
arm of the Lord been revealed? For this reason they could not
believe. For Isaiah said again, he has blinded their eyes. He
has hardened their heart so that they would not see with their
eyes and perceive with their heart and be converted and healed.”
Here Luke, in his Gospel, merely alludes
to one of the most frequent and frequently quoted Old Testament
passages in all the New Testament. Isaiah chapter 6. It was given
as Isaiah’s commissioning. Isaiah, I want you to go and
preach, but you’re going to go preach to blind men and deaf
men and people that will not listen. Great. There is already an active blindness
on the part of everyone to whom we ever preach. And that we must
keep at the forefront of our minds when we preach, because
when we preach, we must pray. Because ultimately, it is only
God that carries forth that torch into the dungeon and sheds that
glorious light of the Gospel. Satan. currently exerts such
an influence over people as prevents them utterly from understanding
and grasping the glory of the gospel. One said it this way, the control
of Satan over the human mind, although so effectual, is analogous
to the influence of one created intellect over another. It should
make us feel our danger and need of divine assistance, seeing
that we have to contend not only against the influence of evil
men, but against the far more powerful influence of the rulers
of darkness. And who can overcome the devil?
God. These consequences of unbelief,
literally bowing down to the God of this age, is that their
minds are blinded. Paul said the Gospel is hidden. It’s hidden to a great number
of people. And he says Satan is in part
and parcel to blame for this. I take you back again in your
mind’s eye to the parable of the soils. Do you remember the
parable of the soils? Satan plays the exact same role in the parable
of the soils. They’re not literally blinding,
but stealing away the seed. The sower had come. The seed
was spread, remember, on four different kinds of soils. In
verse three of Matthew’s gospel, it said that he spoke these things
to them in parables. Behold, the sower went out to
sow and as he sowed, some seed fell beside the road. Luke records that it was literally
trampled. That’s the image of the gospel
in some people’s hearts, the gospel writers record. That Jesus intended to say that
when the gospel goes out, the way some people take it is as
seeds scattered beside the road merely to be trampled on. Matthew
records something rather interesting. He says, and the birds came and
ate it up. They ate up the seed. The seed fell beside the road,
this unresponsive heart, and the birds came and ate it up. And Jesus explained the parable
later. And he said, when anyone hears
the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, literally
does not take it in, the unresponsive heart, the dull heart, the calloused
heart, hardened in their indifference and sin, malignant in their opposition
to the Gospel. When that happens, when one does
not understand it, the evil one, comes and snatches away that
which has been sown in his heart so they may not believe and be
saved. Shocking. Utterly shocking. And that’s why we say to so many
of you, so many of you young people, you sit here week after
week after week and you hear the gospel and you fail to appropriate
it. Sooner or later, the devil is
coming and he will eat that seed and there will be no more opportunity
to respond. And this is so with every person
who hears the word of Christ. We are given a glorious opportunity
to see the light of the gospel. To fail to take it in, to fail
to comprehend it, understand it, yield to it. Sooner or later,
that opportunity is taken away. Look again in verse four. The
God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving
so they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of
Christ. The whole purpose of Satan is
to blind people so that they can’t even get a glimpse of it.
He walls up the dungeon, as it were, so that there is nothing
but dark. Paul had a full knowledge of
what it meant to be blinded. On the road to Damascus, he met
up with Christ. And remember, he was blinded
on the spot. Until which time he was baptized,
but he also knew the all prevailing power of God, who could alone
shed the light of the gospel, the glory of God and dispel all
of that darkness. As a result, when Paul records
his ministry later, that his marching orders from God After
he had received his own sight, his orders were to go and to
open their eyes so that they might turn from darkness to light,
from the dominion of Satan to God. There is no middle ground. You’re either in the dominion
of Satan, which is a dark and desolate place, or you are in
the glory of God. What is this gospel of the glory
of Christ? One described it words that hardly
need description. But he described it so effectively
when he said the glory of Christ is the sum of all the divine
and human excellence which is centered in his person. It makes
Him the radiant point in the universe, the clearest manifestation
of God to His creatures. It’s Jesus. The object of supreme admiration,
adoration and love to all intelligent beings and especially to His
saints. To see His glory is to be saved. For we are thereby
transformed into His likeness from glory to glory. Therefore,
it is that Satan, the great adversary that directs all of his energy
to prevent men from becoming the objects of this illumination. To of which the gospel and his
revelation of the glory of Christ is the source. It is Christ. It is Christ that’s
in view. It’s the Gospel of Christ. It’s
the glory of Christ. It’s faith in Christ. It’s repentance
unto Christ. It’s life in Christ. No wonder Paul, who seemingly
can’t get out of this sentence, adds at the very end that he
is the very image of God. He is the very image of God.
And you miss Him is to miss life itself. Look at verse 4, “…in whose
case the God of this world blinded the minds of the unbelieving
so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory
of Christ, who is the image of God.” What an overwhelmingly
terrible blindness this is. Because it ultimately prevents
us from beholding God revealed before our eyes. We cannot behold
Christ, who is the image of God, if we are blinded by the devil. This word here, this likeness,
literally speaks of God’s revelation. It is the glory of the invisible
God coming down to us. It’s recorded throughout the
pages of Scripture. You know them. John 1, verse
1, In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. 114, the Word became flesh and
He dwelt among us and we saw His glory. Glory is of the only
begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. It was the
image of God. Hebrews 1.3, He is the radiance of His glory,
the exact representation of His nature. Christ, the image of God. John 14, He who has seen Me has
seen the Father. Paul says, look, I don’t preach
an inferior gospel. I preach the very gospel of the
glory of Christ. But I don’t doubt that it can
be obscured even by the devil himself, no matter how glorious
even the gospel of Christ, the glorious light can be obscured.
Paul transitions it to say, make no mistake, it is precisely that
gospel that I’ve preached. Look at verse five. Paul says, we do not preach ourselves,
but Christ Jesus as Lord and ourselves as your bondservants
for Jesus sake. We’re looking at the nature of
illuminating grace. Not only may this light be obscured,
but secondly, this light must be shown. Paul was given marching
orders. He was told to go proclaim this
Christ. And Paul, the last thing that
he ever would do would be to put himself up and to stand himself
in front of everybody else and to say, look at me. Paul wasn’t
interested in them focusing upon him. He was interested in placing
Christ constantly and ever before their eyes. We do not preach ourselves. Jesus
Christ is the subject of our teaching. Yet the mad rush of the modern
church is to do everything but to add to Christ and to supplant
Christ and to put anything up there in front of Christ so that
we can help Him out. Perhaps even Paul had been accused
of preaching himself. To preach oneself is to make
yourself the end, the ultimate goal of your preaching. And you
see plenty of those on the TV, particularly. where that preaching
was designed to attract attention, admiration, accolades. Paul said, that’s not me. We preach Christ, Christ Jesus,
our Lord. If Paul’s gospel was hidden,
it wasn’t because it was his own. It was the gospel of Christ
that Paul preached. And if any people refuse to listen
to it was because That man had allowed himself already to be
blinded by the devil. That’s what he’s saying all the
way along. To preach Christ as Lord is to preach Him crucified,
risen, glorified. He is now sitting at the right
hand of God. He is Lord. As one said, the
object in preaching was to bring men to recognize Jesus as the
Christ, as Him in whom Moses and the prophets designated as
the Messiah. And consequently, that it was
this Jesus who had done, is doing, and would hereafter do all that
had been asserted or predicted of the Messiah. This was the
Christ. Paul wasn’t hedging. Paul wasn’t
guessing. Paul wasn’t wondering if this
might be the case. Paul had one mission, and the
mission was to proclaim Christ. When he mentions himself as a
bondservant, it’s almost a passing statement. It’s not about me. It’s about Christ and only Christ.
And Paul says all that he preaches and particularly he preaches
the Lord Jesus Christ and he does so and we do so. Because
we must. We must preach Christ, we must
proclaim Christ, because that’s the only hope. For this world. Our very salvation urges us to
preach and proclaim our Lord Jesus Christ. And that brings
us to point three. The nature of illuminating grace
is that this light may be obscured, this light must be shown, this
light is a gift of God. The very fact that it was a gift
of God’s grace motivated Paul. Ultimately speaking, he could
not be silent. The very same God, verse 6, who
turned on the light physically on this planet, in this universe,
is the same God that turns on the light of which Charles Wesley
spoke that burst into that dungeon. That spiritual darkness that
totally overwhelms the unredeemed man until God Himself shines
the light. Only God can do that. The same God who said light shall
shine out of darkness is the One who has shone in our hearts. The point that Paul makes here
is that if God has not sovereignly shown the light of the Gospel
in their hearts, They will not and cannot be saved. We could
not have come to know him unless God burst into our own dungeon. And he wraps up with an articulation
of the gospel that is beyond equal. He says, for God who said, light
shall shine out of darkness is the one who has shown in our
hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Christ. This doesn’t sound to me like
a man who was equivocating or uncertain or unsure or a man
who was all about himself. This is a man who was completely
sold out. to proclaiming none other than
the Lord Jesus Christ. And even though the devil himself
stand in the way of a great many, there is no way that Paul was
going to adjust this message or scale it back or try to enhance
it with some man-made device. As John Calvin said, God cannot
be investigated in His unsearchable height. He inhabits unapproachable
light. But to be known as far as He
reveals Himself in Christ. It is more useful for us to behold
God as He appears in His only begotten Son than to investigate
His secret essence. Paul said there are no secrets.
I’m telling you that you are a sinner and that God has met
that sin with the payment of His own Son on the cross. And
that if you cannot hear that gospel, If you will not see that
Christ, there is no hope. Let’s pray. Our merciful God, we would say with the hymn writer,
and can it be, Lord, that You have had mercy on us and have
burst into our darkened cells and shown that glorious light
of the gospel How could we preach anything else? How could we advance
anything else? Certainly not ourselves. But
Father, because you have let us in on the glorious gospel
of Christ, we eagerly proclaim it regardless of the outcome. Be glorified to save your people. And we pray these
things in Jesus’ name, Amen.