This is a wonderful, wonderful passage and I'm going to try to tie in something from chapter one as well as chapter three that we talked about last night. You notice he says here, Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. Of course, Paul has been attacked by the Judaizers in saying, Paul is only in it for the money. He's not really an apostle. His message really isn't true. And Paul is saying here, we have this ministry. We didn't ask for it, we didn't seek it, God gave it to us. As we have received mercy, again, we didn't ask for it, we didn't seek it, but God gave it to us. So We do not lose heart, but we have renounced the hidden things of shame. You can see what they were accusing Paul of. We have renounced the hidden things of shame, 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. Going back in Chapter 3, he had talked about God's glory as brightness in a very physical way. The brightness that shone upon Moses' face when he went up on Mount Sinai to receive the law. And he didn't realize it. Of course, while he was up there on the mountain, he had asked to see God's face, and God said, I can't do that, but I can put you here in the cleft of the rock, and I can put my hand over this, and then walk past you. And as I walk past you, take my hand away, and you will see my backside. In other words, an indirect seeing of God. and Moses didn't realize it, but when he came down from the mountain his face shone so brightly in chapter 3 and verse 7, if the ministry of death, this is the Ten Commandments, written and engraven on stones, was glorious, that had brightness, glory radiating, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance. Which glory was passing away? It was temporary. Well, in contrast to that, verse 8, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious or excel in glory? For if the ministry of condemnation, again the law had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. And then in verse 11, if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious. Now he mentions in chapter 3 verse 13 that unlike Moses who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away then he switches the metaphor and says there's a veil over the minds of unbelieving people today in verse 14 but their minds were blinded For until this day, the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. When a person becomes a believer in Christ, then the veil that hides the true meaning of God's word is taken away. So verse 16, nevertheless when one comes to the Lord the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. There's not bondage, it's not a ministry of condemnation or death like the law, but where the spirit of the Lord is there's liberty or freedom. We all with unveiled face we're not confused about what the Bible teaches with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror and what do you see when you look in the mirror? You see your own face and so when he says beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord it either means that God is standing next to us so that when we look in the mirror we not only see ourselves but see the Lord in his glory or more likely what he's saying is even though Moses didn't realize that his face was shining so we don't realize when we walk with the Lord on a day-by-day basis our face in some sense is being transformed and shining. We are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as by the Spirit of the Lord. So this glory, this brightness, this light is going to be a theme and here in chapter 4 even though he introduces the chapter by saying the what the false teachers are saying about me is wrong, I don't have devious motives, I was given this ministry from the Lord, we've renounced the hidden things of shame and all of that. He says in verse 3, if our gospel is veiled, see it's the same image of going back to chapter 3, if there's a veil over the mind of the false teachers, so that the message of the gospel is veiled, it's veiled to those who are perishing. They're not on their way to heaven, they're on their way to hell. Verse four, whose minds the God of this age, that's the devil, whose minds the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light, here again, glory, light, brightness, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. The source of the light is God himself. It is God's glory. And that was in the opening verses of chapter 4. But then secondly, there's not only the source of the light, there's the need for the light. three and four. The veiled minds, the lack of understanding is on the part of unbelievers and this is due to the devil blinding their minds. People wonder when we talk about the sinfulness of human beings and it's not a matter of my saying you're a sinner, I'm saying we're all sinners. This is the situation in which we find ourselves. Romans 3 says there is none righteous, no not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seek after God. Our intellects have been affected by sin. Our wills have been affected by sin. And so he can say here To whom is the gospel veiled? It's veiled to those who are perishing. The devil has blinded their minds. Why? Lest the light of the gospel, the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. So you have the need for the light. But we also see in verses 4 and 5 that the focus of the light is Christ himself. You cannot obtain forgiveness of sins apart from knowing who Jesus Christ is and what he's done for you. For the simple reason that the way in which forgiveness of sins is given to us is by trusting, our trusting, in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Savior of the world. He died for everyone but we're the sinner, you're the sinner, I'm the sinner who needs a Savior and there has to come a time in our life when we realize that when it's personal and realizing that we're sinners to realize Jesus died on the cross of Calvary as a sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sin so that our sins could be forgiven and when we put our trust in him that's what it means to believe to personally trust in Christ then we receive eternal life well how can we who know the Lord is our Savior and we have responded to the gospel in verse 4 The devil has blinded the minds of those who don't believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. He has always existed as a member of the Godhead. He's not a created being. But at a certain point in time, without ceasing to be God, he also became a human being. And that change, which is an addition not a subtraction, that change with the human nature added to the divine nature is a permanent change. There is at the present time, Paul tells Timothy, one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Here it describes Jesus as who is the image of God and talking about light, the light of the gospel. The devil doesn't want that light to shine. So, what can we do? If we know Christ is our Savior, we are at least mirrors of the light because we behold in a mirror the glory of the Lord and are being changed from glory into glory. That was the end of chapter 3. But how in the world can we get the people that we love who don't know Christ to understand this? Well, look what Paul says in verses 5 and 6. We do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. There again, the emphasis is on the deity of Christ. And ourselves, your bond servants, your slaves, for Jesus' sake. How can people whose minds have been blinded, how can they understand the gospel? The only thing we can do is pray for those people and as clearly as possible preach or proclaim the gospel to those people. But ultimately it is God's responsibility to take the blindness away. Notice verse 6. It is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness. Remember Genesis 1, at the beginning of time, God said, let there be light and there was light. The God who commanded 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. we can't remove the blindness but we can proclaim Christ clearly and pray that God in his love and mercy would shine the light in the hearts of the unbelievers. So the need for the light, the focus of the light is Christ. The power of the light in verse 6 is that God the one who commanded light to shine out of darkness can cause the light to shine in people's hearts and that is grace that's bringing salvation. Verse 7 talks about the holder of the light meaning you and me we're the containers for the light we have this treasure in earthen vessels we're not sinlessly perfect but we are vessels with the light and we have this treasure in earthen vessels so that the experience of the power may be of God that we won't go around saying look at me I have this power to do this to do that people will say well he's only the messenger the power comes from God himself that the power may be of God in the verse 7 and not of us. So Paul describes his own condition, were hard pressed on every hand and yet not crushed, were perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always caring about in the body, our physical body, the dying of the Lord, Jesus, with the life of Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always delivered to death, the possibility of persecution and death for Jesus' sake so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us but life in you. Now of course he's trying to remind them if What the false teachers say that I'm handling the word of God deceitfully and I'm only using you. Why would I feel this strongly that it's okay for God to allow our bodies to die to work death in us so that it would bring life to you. we have the same spirit of faith verse 13 according to what is written I believed and therefore spoke we also believe and also therefore speak here is the means that God uses to increase the light both in us and through us So he says, verse 16, therefore we do not lose heart, even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. Now, verse 17 ought to be very important to us because back in chapter one, he had described God in chapter 1 verse 3 as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God and so he says You can expect there to be trials and tribulations. You can expect, if you are a true bearer of the light for the Lord Jesus Christ, you can expect to suffer. Suffering is the means that God uses to increase that light, both externally and internally. In other words, to help us have light to understand the truth of God's Word, He allows us to experience afflictions. But He is also using these afflictions, these sufferings, to bring about an increased ability to radiate the brightness, the glory of Christ. When Christ returns we will be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. All believers will have an ability to radiate the brightness of Christ. But the capacity is different from person to person. So that glorification, the ability to radiate the brightness of Christ, is both a benefit of salvation, Romans 8.30, those whom he justified he also glorified, but also he can tell us here in verse 17, that our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. We have affliction and it is light. By light he means not heavy. I may have said this, I say this often when I preach from this passage, I may have said it here in years gone by. How many of you think of me as light? Let me see your hands. What are you laughing at? Sylvia, I saw that snicker come across your face. The proper answer, without lying of course, is to say compared to what? Compared to Dumbo the elephant, sure, you're light. You see, it's a term of comparison. And what it's compared to are light affliction, which is but for a moment, so it's momentary as well as light. It talks about a far more exceeding and eternal weight or heaviness of glory. There's glory that's going to be ours in the future. And it's not temporary, it's eternal. And it's not light, it's heavy. And so you ought to expect as a believer to have affliction. It's part of God's plan, part of God's program. And sometimes In the closing days of a believer's life they really suffer and we wonder as their loved ones why do they have to suffer so? But here we see that God has a purpose for that suffering so that when the resurrection takes place their capacity to radiate the glory of Christ will be far greater than if they hadn't had that opportunity to suffer. So our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us. But of course, it's not merely that we have the light affliction, it's that we're responding correctly to the light affliction. And one of the things that will help us to respond correctly is to recognize that it's momentary. You can endure a lot of things if you know it's going to pass. And so he wants us to say, yes, you've allowed me to experience suffering, but the affliction is light compared to the glory which awaits. There is a whole theme that runs throughout the Bible with the brightness of God. God is light. And in Him is no darkness at all. God said in the beginning, let there be light. And there was light. Have you ever noticed in Ezekiel chapter 28, many Bible teachers, including myself, believe that this is a description of an important cherub who sinned against God and became known as Satan. And in Ezekiel 28, he describes this cherub. In verse 12, son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, because demonic forces occupied geographical locations in Daniel chapter 10. Daniel prayed to God, and he prayed for 21 days, and it looked like nothing was happening. And finally, the angel Gabriel came to him and said, your prayer has been heard, and from the first day that you prayed, it was heard, and I was sent. But the prince of Persia withstood me for 21 days. until Michael, one of the chief princes, he's the only one who's actually called an archangel in the Bible, came to help me. So I take the king attire to be a demonic force which as it's explained here turns out to be the devil himself. You were the seal of perfection it could mean that God had given his seal to the devil to rule and reign or he had put his seal of perfection upon him but you'll notice full of wisdom perfect in beauty let me tell you that if you excel in beauty and excel in wisdom, the temptation to sin against God is far greater than if you're a normal, average, non-brilliant person like the rest of us. I mean, I've noticed it as a teacher in students. The ones who were gifted by God and knew that they were gifted by God tended to be puffed up with pride. And God cannot use as an instrument of his grace people who are puffed up with pride. That's why the Bible says he resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble doesn't mean pride yanked inside out. Oh look at me, I'm a nobody, I'm a nothing. God doesn't want people looking at you. He wants us to be pointing to him. And so true humility is a realistic view of ourselves. Oh, we know what we are without the grace of God, or would be, but we also know that by the grace of God we're somebody's, we're gifted, we're important, we're light bearers. But here was the devil, he was full of wisdom, perfect in beauty. Verse 13 says, you were in Eden, the garden of God. Now if this is written just to an earthly king, it's one thing to flatter the king, it's another thing to say things that don't make any sense at all. And a king would not be flattered to say you were in Eden, the garden of God. What are you talking about? If this doesn't refer to the devil. And notice now it says, every precious stone was your covering. Now whether that's actually body parts or whether it's the kind of apparel or a cloak or something that this cherub wore, but every kind of precious stone was his covering. The sardis, topaz, diamond, beryl, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise, emerald with gold, the workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. You were the anointed cherub who covers I don't know entirely what that means, but it means he was a special angel, a special cherub, an anointed one. I established you. You were on the holy mountain of God. Notice, you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones so that the various colors in those stones involved brightness that just exhibited the color, the multitude of color, the blending of color that was supposed to bring glory to God. But instead it caused him to say, wow, look at what a great person I am. Because it says, you are perfect in your ways, verse 15, from the day you were created till iniquity was found in you. Verse 17, your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. There's coming a day when Jesus Christ will return and when he does Romans 8 says that all of creation which is under bondage will eventually be released from that bondage. Romans 8.20 For the creation was subjected to futility, senselessness, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope. Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pains together until now. Verse 23 in Romans 8. not only that but we also who have the firstfruits of the spirit or have the spirit as the firstfruits even we ourselves grown within ourselves eagerly waiting for the adoption the redemption of our bodies and so when Paul writes excuse me when Peter writes in 1st Peter chapter 5 He begins by addressing the elders of the church. Most of the time, the elders are also pastors and bishops. But I don't think that it's always that case. And here's, I think, an example. Peter was an apostle. We don't know that he was ever pastor of a church. But he says, the elders who are among you, I exhort. I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed." So a godly faithful pastor and elders who do their job well can expect to receive this kind of glory that will be revealed. He says, "...shepherd or pastor the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain, but eagerly, not as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock." Now clearly those words are addressed to the leaders and we're told that when the chief pastor, the chief shepherd appears, you will receive a crown characterized by glory that does not fade away. but then notice in verse 5 it goes beyond the leaders likewise you younger people submit yourselves to your elders yes all of you be submissive to one another be clothed with humility for God resists the proud but gives grace to the humbled. Therefore, verse 6, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. Here is affliction. Here is suffering. And what is our response to be? Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. The affliction isn't going to last. It's temporary. It's light. It's momentary. What should our responsibility be in the meantime? Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. So often, when afflictions come to us, we say, no one else has ever had to suffer this way. Or, God doesn't love me anymore, but scripture makes it clear He does care for us. And we're to cast all our care upon Him, for He cares for you. Then he says, be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, your enemy, the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking who may be devour. Then he says resist him steadfast in the faith. Well what does he mean resist him steadfast in the faith? He's not saying go around performing exorcisms He tells us what it means to resist Him steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. Don't be overcome by the afflictions. Don't say, I'm the only one who's ever had to suffer this way. Other believers are also suffering. Cast your care upon Him. He really does care for you. So I think These instructions go beyond instructions to the leaders of the church to everyone else in the church as well. And what's the end? Are we going to keep suffering forever? No. Verse 10, but may the God of all grace who called us to His eternal glory. How long will that glory last? His eternal glory. by Christ Jesus after you have suffered for a while he will perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. And so in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 and particularly in verse 17, don't give up. God has a purpose for that affliction. It's light compared to the glory which is heavy. It's momentary in contrast to the glory which is eternal. But it is working for you. If you respond appropriately to the affliction, to the suffering, then God will increase your capacity so that when Christ comes back again and our bodies are glorified, we will not only have the capacity of this, we will have the capacity of the barrel. Both will be full. Both will be satisfied. But God will tell and will know that one has a greater capacity than the other because we have responded properly to God's working in our lives. He loves us. He's not being mean. He's not being arbitrary. He has a reason for why he allows the suffering to go on in our life. And all of this is grounded in the fact that Jesus died for our sins. We don't earn salvation. Jesus, God's only begotten son, died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. And if we put our trust in this one who died for us and rose again, then he gives us not only eternal life, but we start to grow. And part of this growth will involve suffering. The same sun that melts the wax hardens the clay. Is your heart going to be like the wax and allow God to melt it and to shape it and mold it to his honor and glory? Or is your heart going to be like the clay, which hardens because of the heat of the sun? There are both kinds of people. Both are saved people, but one is very bitter against God, the other is submissive to God. They may not know why God is allowing them to suffer, but they are casting all their care upon Him. They know He cares for them. Isn't that wonderful? So what started in chapter one is the Father of mercies, the God of all comfort, takes us into chapter three with brightness in Moses' face, shown with brightness, but compared to the glory, the brightness that's gonna cause us to shine, it's as if it were nothing at all. And so then he talks about what suffering does to help accomplish that goal, that purpose in our lives. I trust that God will work in your heart and life, that you will respond appropriately to his word. Let's pray. Father, use these words to strengthen us and encourage us. Lord, where there needs to be repentance because we've hardened ourselves against you and your will, may there be that repentance. But for the rest of us, help us to be submissive and to yield to you. We want to radiate your glory to the greatest possible extent. Bless us now, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. and all God's people said, some of us are