2 Corinthians, chapter 4, verses 1 through 6. The scripture says, Therefore, this is Paul writing, Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's Word. But by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord. with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Gracious Father, We thank you for the revelation of your word this morning. Lord, these are truths that we never would have known unless your spirit had inspired the prophets and apostles to write them for our knowledge, our instruction, and the building up of our holy faith. So, Father, we ask you to graciously open up your word to us today and teach us of your truths, we ask it in Christ's precious name. Amen. In Chapter 3 of the Book of 2 Corinthians, we saw that the Apostle Paul had been outlining the great work of the Holy Spirit among his people. The work of the Spirit in the New Covenant was established by Jesus' death and resurrection, and it was so powerful and effective that it revealed the ineffectiveness and the weakness of the old covenant, the covenant of the law that had come through Moses. God was doing a new thing in the earth, in the new covenant, through the Holy Spirit. God's people came to be indwelt permanently by the Spirit. Their sins were really and permanently forgiven and removed, not like under the old covenant. And God's people received the inner power and the motivation to keep God's law from their hearts as they grew and reflected more and more about the very character of God, of Christ. Paul could say, with great confidence regarding his own work among these believers, that it was so powerful that he could call these Corinthians, these former idolaters, as living letters of Christ. Not written on paper, but letters written on their hearts, so that their lives not only vindicated Paul's work, as an apostle, but even more importantly, they brought glory to God because of the life-transforming work He was doing in changing these sinful people so that they were taking on the very character of Jesus Christ more and more. And so, it was for these reasons and others in the previous three chapters, that Paul begins chapter 4 with the word, therefore. In other words, because of all these truths that I've been talking about, because of the great work of the Spirit that I've been writing about, the following results are also true. And so he begins the first major idea of chapter 4, 1 through 6. And this is the first idea. It is the transparency of the apostles' ministry. It was clear. It was open for all to see. Paul makes clear that he had been granted this ministry only by the mercy of God. He says in verse 1, Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. Well, you remember that Paul had been a fierce persecutor of the Christian church. He'd been a man who depended on his own diligent law-keeping as the grounds for his justification before God. He approved of Stephen's death, the first Christian martyr, and he pursued Christians even to foreign cities to imprison them and arrest them and bring them back to Jerusalem for trial. But something happened. God's mercy came to Paul. The risen Christ appeared to him on the road to Damascus and he was born again by the Holy Spirit. And then he was baptized by a Christian named Ananias in that area. Instead of being a persecutor of the church, he became the church's greatest missionary and defender. Things were often very tough for the apostle. Here in Corinth, in fact, the church that he himself with his associates had founded, and he'd spent 18 months laboring among them, they had been infected by teachers who had come in trying to undermine his integrity and his authority. Now, it wasn't just that he was personally insulted or offended, it was because they were disparaging the gospel that he preached. And this is why he was so diligent to preserve the integrity of his message and of his ministry. So, he defends the ministry that he and Titus and Sosthenes had among them. It was an above-board ministry. He says in verse two, we have renounced disgraceful underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. Well, he describes some underhanded ways of seeking to be ministers of God. And there were evidently people traveling around doing these very same things. They were cunning. They were tampering with God's Word. They were using disgraceful, underhanded methods to disparage God's true servants and ministers. They were trying to substitute their own persons and teachings in place of the legitimate men of God who were preaching the true gospel. So these deceivers were trying to win a following because of their own ego and no doubt for financial gain. They were cunning. They knew the right words to say. They knew people's weaknesses and ignorance, so they took advantage of them for their own benefit. They twisted the teachings of God's words so that the apostolic message and gospel was lost. They altered the true teaching of God's Word to fit their own agenda and their own doctrine. They were blind guides leading the people off the paths of the true gospel, off the path of salvation and into dangerous error. But Paul and his companions, they were not like these imposters. Paul says in verse 2 that they openly stated the truth They did not depart one iota, one dot from the Gospel of Christ. They proclaimed openly and clearly that Christ suffered, that He died, that He resurrected. They proclaimed that He became incarnate by the Holy Spirit. The second person of the Triune God had become man. And they proclaimed the substitutionary sacrifice on the cross as the only remedy given under heaven for sinful humankind's reconciliation with the Holy God. They proclaim Christ's lordship over heaven and earth. He was the kingly ruler over all things. He'd been crowned with glory and honor and sat down at the Father's right hand. And he will return again to judge the living and the dead. The apostles themselves were open books. Paul could say, read me, read my way of life, read my doctrine, read my teaching. You will find nothing contrary to God or to his will. I am open to be examined. I have served God with a clear conscience all my life. I have been and I remain a faithful servant of Christ and of His doctrine. I've only sought to know Him better and to make Him known with all the strength that God gives me. Paul would say, I'm not perfect. I'm striving for the goal. I'm only serving Christ with wholehearted devotion and loyalty. Paul says in another place that he worked harder than all the other apostles, but he knew it was not just his own human strength, but it was the grace of God working within him. Paul was not a perfect man. He would be the first to acknowledge that. But he was a worthy man, a man worthy to be called a Christian and an apostle. He was worthy to be heard and to be heeded. His life was worthy of imitating. His devotion to Christ and his love for the church were of the highest degree and sincerity. Even as Jesus had challenged the people of his day to find any sin in him, Paul could challenge the people among whom he rubbed shoulders with to find any fault in his apostolic ministry. They couldn't find a fault. Paul was, in other words, an absolutely dedicated man. He was a gift to the church in all ages. Well, but the situation changes in the next two verses, verses 3 and 4. We see a different subject, a contrasting truth. We read in verse 3 and 4, Paul writes, even if our gospel is veiled, It's veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the glory of God, who is the image of God. And so we see here in these two verses the blindness of the unbelieving world. The gospel of Christ is wonderful. It's powerful. It's life-changing. There's nothing like it in all the earth that can compare with it, but it's often veiled. That is, it's hidden from many people. Who is it hidden from? Paul says it's veiled, it's hidden to those who are perishing. Notice this is an active verb. They are actively right now perishing. They're at the present time perishing. The people you see walking down the streets here in Dallas are perishing. They may dress nice. They may talk reasonably nice. They may help an old lady across the street. But if they don't know Jesus, they are perishing. They're on their way to hell. They are actively separating themselves from God. They're in continual rebellion against God. They're constantly adding to their list of sins and accusations in God's record book. The longer they live, they do nothing but continue to be in the process of cutting themselves off from God because they refuse to acknowledge His eternal power and His divine nature. as steadily as they are breathing. As they are breathing, they're at the same time perishing. They breathe, they're perishing as they march toward their final destiny. And this is God's description of humanity. It's in the Bible. It's not just my idea. But the way God describes the rebellion of mankind against his revelation in nature, It's a terrible sight. It's a hopeless sight. In Ephesians it says, we were once without hope and without God in this world. That's true of every one of us here today. We were without hope. Apart from the gospel of Christ, we were without God. Well, these people that are perishing, they're condemned because of their own sins. They're blinded to their true condition before God. And they're blinded by an outside force, an outside power. Paul calls it here, the God of this world. That is, it's Satan himself. Now, it may not be popular in our so-called sophisticated society to acknowledge that there's a personal devil, but there is. In fact, the whole of humanity is enslaved and in bondage to the devil. You and I were in bondage to the devil. We served the god of this world. We jumped at his command, at his will. Most people are not aware of this. but there's a personal spiritual power that holds sway over every man and woman and child's mind to keep them blinded to the truth of the reality of the living God, to keep them blinded to their lost condition before God. The Word of God reveals that the devil is a real person, a real spiritual being, I should say, He has real power, and He holds humankind in captivity. Peter, for example, warns about the devil. He says in 1 Peter 5, 8, your adversary, that is your enemy, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion. seeking someone to devour. And you can't see him, because he's an invisible spirit. But he's lurking around, trying to capture anybody he can. But here's the thing. If we belong to Jesus Christ, we do not have to fear the devil. We do need to be aware of his tactics and his activities, and then combat him with the spiritual weapons of prayer and the Word of God. What is the devil trying to do? His main object, it says here in the scriptures, is to keep them, prevent them from seeing the light of the gospel and the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. He's trying, every way he can think of, to obscure, to hide the truth of the gospel from people. Because he knows, if they hear the gospel, if they believe it, and they commit to Christ, they'll be saved. You see, The devil does not want people to hear or understand the gospel of Christ. He does not want them to see the light of the gospel. He wants to keep them in darkness. He wants to keep them in ignorance. He doesn't want them to understand its truth. He wants to keep humankind in his evil clutches. He delights to oppose God. And so, make no mistake about it, we are involved in a great spiritual warfare for the capture of the minds and hearts of men and women, boys and girls. There is this evil power. He's called the devil, or Satan, or the accuser of the brothers, or the great liar, or the deceiver. And he delights to do everything he can to keep people from seeing the light of the gospel and the glory of Christ. Christ is their only hope of being free from his enslavement, so he's doing everything he can to prevent them from knowing about Christ. Well, Paul here says, the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. That's what the devil is trying to keep hidden. In other words, the gospel, what does it do? It brings light. The good news of God's salvation brings release, freedom to the captives. In this gospel, the glory of Jesus Christ is seen. John Calvin interprets this phrase as the gospel in which Christ's glory shines. Now, is this not true? Is not Christ glorified in the gospel? Think about it. He left heaven's glory. He was incarnated, became a man. He lived in Nazareth. He suffered for 33 years, mocking the temptations of the devil. Yet, he was without a single sin. He bore the wretched sins of you and I, His people. He suffered the punishment of the eternal hell that we deserve. And then by His mighty resurrection from the dead on the third day, He defeated death. He defeated hell. He defeated Satan. And He won for us, His people, everlasting salvation. Amen. Does He not deserve glory? Yes, He does. Is he not the great hero of our faith? Yes, he is. Is he not worthy of all blessing, honor, and glory? Yes, he is. Yes, he is. Paul goes on to describe an essential truth about Jesus Christ. He says that he is the image of God. What does that mean? Well, for one thing, let's think back into eternity past. if I can call it that, and consider who's in eternity. Who is this God in eternity? He is the one God, is he not? That's what Deuteronomy 6, verse 4 says. Yet he's not the lonely God. But within Himself, He exists as three persons, three divine persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each person of the Triune God is one and equal with the other two persons in their essential being, in their essential nature. Yet it was the Son who left heaven. He's the eternal Son of the Father. He came to earth to reveal the invisible God to us. We don't see the Father, and we don't see the Spirit, but we do see the Son. He's the exact revelation of the being of God, because He is God. He has just taken on humanity, so His nature and character now become visible to us. He's the image of the invisible God. He's the revelation. of the invisible God. Paul uses this same phrase in Colossians 1.15. He says, he's the image of the invisible God. And then in Philippians 2, the same idea is there. Paul writes, Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God as a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men." It's like he somewhat hid his deity when he became a man. Not that he lost any of the attributes of deity, but they were not evident. And so the writer to the Hebrews, the book of Hebrews, says this same truth. He says, chapter 1, Verse 3, speaking of Jesus Christ, the final revelation of God, He says, He is the radiance of God's glory, the exact imprint of His nature. He opposes the universe by the word of His power, the exact imprint of His nature. He's the image of the invisible God. Well, someone said Christ is the visible and perfect representation of the invisible God, because He is God, who has taken upon Himself our humanity, yet His deity shines through His humanity, so that we can see and understand more of the nature and character of God. He is the image, the exact image of the invisible God. Praise God for such a revelation. So, in verses 3 and 4, Paul is outlining the blindness of the unbelieving world. He's telling why people are blinded. Because of Satan. It's a major reason. And he almost casually mentions that Christ is the image of the invisible God. It just exudes out of his being. He can't help but mention Christ. And so he ends up giving us a great lesson in Christology that is of the nature of Christ, that he is God whose attributes are revealed through the human man, Jesus. And so Paul is so consumed with the glory of Christ that he can't help saying something more of his glory. his speech. Well, in verse 5, Paul continues. He says, for, in other words, for this reason, what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. And so here we see the third major point in this passage, and it's the proclamation of the apostles. What exactly were the apostles proclaiming? Were they saying, come to Jesus and all your problems will end? Were they saying, come to Jesus and He'll give you whatever you want to spend on your pleasures and lusts? No. They were proclaiming that Jesus Christ is Lord. This is the basic Christian confession. It states that Jesus of Nazareth, the one anointed by the Holy Spirit to be the suffering servant of God, would die for the sins of his people, be raised from the dead, be declared by God the Father as Lord of heaven and earth, the King of the kingdom of God, the one worthy of all of our worship, obedience and service. This is what Paul and the apostles were proclaiming. And he's saying of himself, we're merely servants of this gospel, servants of the Lord Jesus. And they had come to proclaim the gospel among the Corinthians and to live lives of servants, not trying to gain money from them or any kind of selfish advantage over them, but only gain their attention so they could teach them the gospel and love them. They taught them, these Corinthians, day after day for 18 months. They taught them the truth of Jesus Christ, the gospel, the word of God. They taught them what to believe and how to live before Christ. In other places, Paul revealed the same kind of mindset. and the stance he had when he worked among other churches. He says in 1 Thessalonians 2.6, We did not seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. He writes in the other Corinthian letter, 1 Corinthians 9.19, Though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant of all, that I might win more of them. Then in this same letter 2nd Corinthians 124 he said not that we lord it over your faith But we work with you for your joy for you stand firm in your faith The Apostles were not seeking any kind of glory for themselves. They were only seeking the good of these people They're up building in the faith They lay down their lives to help these people because they love Jesus and The apostle usually worked, making tents, so nobody could charge him with trying to gain money. Well, they were servants of the living God, they were servants of Christ, and they were servants of the people among whom they worked. They were true servant leaders. They were apostolic servants, servants of the Gospel of Christ and of the Church. Paul goes on in verse 6 to say this, For God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So here we see the fourth major point in this passage, and that is the saving work of God. Paul discusses how the gospel comes to us. And to do this, he goes all the way back to Genesis chapter 1. And he refers to the first few verses of Genesis. Genesis 1-2 says, the earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light. And there was light. Now notice here, at the beginning of creation, there was only darkness there. But God did something. By his command, he brought forth light into the darkness. He said, let there be light, and there was light. It was one of the first great creative acts of God, and it came from God's initiative, from God's will, from God's purpose. It was a miracle, and it was all of God. In a similar way, Paul is discussing what happens in the lives of people who become Christians. He likens it to what happened at creation. There was darkness covering the earth. And in our own hearts, there was darkness covering our hearts and our minds. It was a stifling darkness. We were suffocating. It was an impeding darkness, a preventing darkness. It prevented us from seeing the beauty and glory of God. It kept us shut off from God, this spiritual darkness and blindness that encompassed our lives. It's like we were in a dark room where you couldn't even see the hand in front of your face, and there was glorious light in the next room, but we were cut off from it. We could not find the doorknob. We wandered around in the darkness, hopeless, cut off from the light, groping, trying to get to the light, but we couldn't do it. So we were in captivity to the darkness of our own sins, and the devil gladly kept us in this darkness. He kept us blinded to the light of the gospel. But then something happened. God looked upon us, each of us, in pity and mercy. and sent His Son to rescue us and revealed His invisible nature through His Son. And that at just the right time in each of our earthly pilgrimages, He spoke the Word of the Gospel, the saving light of the Gospel, into our hearts and minds and we heard it. We understood it. It may have been over a period of months or even years. He sent the Holy Spirit. to cause us to rise up out of our darkness and spiritual death and to behold the Son of God in all of His saving beauty and glory. Paul says it like this in Ephesians 2, verse 4. Though we were lost in sin, but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together in Christ. So Paul is writing in 2nd Corinthians 4 verse 6 of this great light that has come into our lives. And when he writes about it, it seems like he was probably thinking about his own salvation. Remember, he was in the darkness of his legalistic way of life and the risen Christ met him on the road to Damascus and each of his three conversion accounts that he gives in the book of Acts he talks about at noonday a light from heaven brighter than the sun appeared to him just like at creation when God spoke light into the universe he did the same thing for the apostle Paul and he does it for every person who comes to Christ He commands that the light of understanding of the gospel of Christ permeate into our minds and warm our hearts and draws us to himself and he sends the light to dispel the spiritual darkness that has encompassed us and he throws on the light switch in the dark rooms of our lives and he floods the rooms of our hearts and minds with a glorious, light-giving gospel of Jesus Christ. You see, it is Christ who reveals the glory of God. In Christ, we see the glory of God revealed. At first, when he was crucified and he died like a criminal and was buried, Satan rejoiced. The enemies of Christ rejoiced. It seemed like the redeemer of mankind. The hopes of this deliverer were dashed on the rocks. But then on the third day, all that changed. When Jesus rose from the dead, he left the tomb. He appeared to his disciples. He was alive forevermore. The debt of our sins was paid for. The way into heaven opened for us. The light had come. The darkness was vanishing away, chased away by the glorious resurrection and victory of Jesus Christ. We can now behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That is, in Him, in Christ, the incarnated God, we see the glory of God. For He left heaven, the glory of heaven, and He came down, and He took upon Himself our full human nature. Yet without sin, He died and rose to rescue us, to bring us salvation, to bring us into never-ending fellowship with Himself. This is the great promise of the Scriptures, that God would dwell with us, and we would dwell with Him. So the Almighty God, just like at the creation of the light in the universe, He speaks to us the word of salvation. He sends the light into our lives to destroy the darkness. Even as Jesus spoke that word of command to his friend Lazarus, who'd been dead for four days and was beginning to stink, he gave the command, Lazarus, come forth. Lazarus got up from his bed in the cave in the tomb. He stumbled out into the darkness, still wrapped in his grave clothes. but he'd been raised by the command and word of Christ. And so he speaks that same word of salvation to us. Let there be light in that dead sinner's life. Let him behold my son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and come alive. Come, light of salvation, come into that sinner's life. And it happens every time God gives the word of command. Amen. The darkness is destroyed. We come alive. We're alive in Christ. We live. We'll never really die. We'll always be in fellowship with Christ. Even when our bodies are laid in the grave, somehow we enter into His presence in a temporary state awaiting the resurrection of the dead. Well, the glory of God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ, in the person, in the ministry of Jesus Christ, is spoken of in different places in the scriptures. You remember John 1.14. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory. Glory as of the only Son, from the Father, full of grace and truth. We saw the glory of the Son. And then, Matthew, for example, chapter 17, talks about the Mount of Transfiguration. When Jesus took Peter and James and John up on the high mountain and Jesus was transfigured before them and his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. This was a revelation of the glory of God that shone through for a few minutes there. And then after his resurrection, Jesus spoke these words, Luke 24, 26, Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter his glory? You see, strange as it may seem, Christ's death and resurrection, what seemed at first to be his defeat, turned out to be the most glorious thing about Jesus Christ. Jesus said himself in John 12, verse 23, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it. Whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me. For where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. And Jesus goes on and says, now my soul is troubled. What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. For this purpose, I've come to this hour. Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven. I have glorified it. I will glorify it again. You see, Jesus was coming to his death. This was the hour of his glorification. that the Son of God would come and die for sinners and be resurrected. The writer to the Hebrews summarizes this in chapter 2, verse 9. He says, But we see Him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. And then Peter writes in 1 Peter 1.21, you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. See, the resurrection of the dead, Christ was glorified. And then Paul summarizes this in this doxology. He says in Romans 16.27, To the only wise God be glory forever. How? Through Jesus Christ, he says. Through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ glorifies God. That's why Paul writes here, Let the light shine out of darkness, God said. He has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. Where is that found? It's in the face of Jesus Christ in His ministry, in His glorious victory. So today, in this passage, we've seen, first of all, the transparency of the Apostles' ministry. We've seen the blindness of the unbelieving world. We've seen the proclamation of the Apostles, which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. we've seen the saving work of God. It's like that work that God did in creation when he spoke light into the universe, so he speaks light of salvation into us. So when he speaks the word of salvation to us, he reveals Christ to us, he enables us to believe, to turn from our sins, and we become a Christian We cannot boast. What did we do? Nothing. We're just instruments. Chosen, beloved instruments from before the foundation of the world. People who God loved so much that he sent his son to rescue us. This gospel is centered in Christ's person and his work. It's the only salvation that can be found in all the earth among all the religions and philosophies of mankind. Only in Jesus Christ can salvation be found. There's no other name given among, under heaven. That's why we must speak the gospel of Christ to the people that we rub shoulders with. Satan wants to keep that saving information away from them. We've been called to preach the gospel to our generation. So let us serve Christ with joy and dedication all the days of our lives. Let his light shine through our lives for his glory. And may he use us to bring light to the peoples of the earth. to our friends and to our neighbors. The confession of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior brings the knowledge of the glory of God to all who hear the gospel and believe it. Because the light of Christ has shone in our lives, let us give thanks to God with that joy unspeakable and serve Him with devotion with obedience and with grateful love all of our days. Amen. Let us pray. Father, like Paul, we can say we are the recipients of mercy. There's no other reason why we're gathered in this place today. No other reason why we have come to know you. because we were engulfed in spiritual darkness and captivity, slaves of Satan. Until you spoke the light of salvation through the gospel of Christ into our lives, you enabled us to repent, to believe, and to be saved. We thank you, our Father. We are never-ending debtors to you for sending the light of the gospel of Christ into our lives. Oh, Lord, we bless you. We thank you. Use us to bring this light to other people. We ask in Christ's precious name. Amen.