Good evening. Please take your Bibles and turn to 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter four. There's a scripture text this evening. 2 Corinthians chapter four verses one through six. 2 Corinthians chapter four verses one through six. This is God's word. 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's veiled only 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 shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this text of your word. Thank you for the gospel and we thank you for enlightening our hearts and minds to see and believe the gospel. We thank you for salvation in Christ and I pray that we will Praise you more because of this text this evening, for Christ's sake, amen. I once heard on the radio about a so-called evangelist who said something like this. Give me 30 minutes with any unbeliever, even the most hostile atheist, and I will make him a Christian. In one conversation. What brought this man to such an unbiblical and arrogant way of thinking? It's undoubtedly they had a very low view of sin, a very low view of Satan, a very low view of conversion, and a very high view of himself and of his so-called strategies and persuasive skills. These evangelistic strategies oftentimes will fill seats in churches. But, what are we to make of preaching that doesn't result in many conversions, or doesn't result in many people coming into the church? Are we supposed to come up with our own strategies, our own gimmicks, to try to reach the lost for Christ? This text before us this evening answers some of these questions. Look at verse one and two again. It says, 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. See, Paul received his position as a minister of the gospel by the mercy of God and was strengthened by God to continue in it through all trials. He did not lose heart because he was commissioned by God and given the strength by the Holy Spirit to continue on. He was jealous to protect the gospel and to preach it in a way that was consistent with his calling from Jesus. He wasn't going to adulterate the gospel or come up with ways that are inconsistent with his call as a minister. He was going to do it the way that Jesus called him to do it and preach the message that Jesus called him to preach. So because Paul desired to be a faithful minister of the gospel, he had to reject certain things. He had to reject certain so-called strategies, evangelistic strategies, that men had devised. He says, or to tamper with God's word, cunning. We refuse to practice cunning or craftiness, crafty strategies, specious wisdom or false wisdom, things that appear smart, appear wise, appear like a good idea, but in reality are ungodly and unbiblical and are not a good idea. What are some of these underhanded ways, some of these disgraceful underhanded ways, these ways of craftiness that people do? Well, one thing would be gimmicks. We will get people in our church if we draw them by things that appeal to their carnal nature. We'll do concerts, theater productions, dance routines, anything entertaining to get people in the seats, to get people to say, hey, I'm a Christian, I go to church, I belong to this church. That's supposedly the best way to reach people for the Lord, is to do these gimmicks, some people think. I saw one church where they made a giant couch, like 25 feet long, out of a trampoline, and the pastor jumped on this trampoline couch as part of his sermon. That same church had a choreographed dance routine as part of their worship, and there was a lead singer and everything. It was a real show. All of this in their service was done to attract people to their church. But see, if you use carnal means to attract people, you're gonna get carnal people. No conversion's going to happen by this type of entertainment that these churches offer. Another thing that's cunning and crafty is manipulation for financial gain for the preacher. Give to the preacher or become part of the church. Give to the church and you're on the fast track to health, wealth, and happiness. One famous prosperity gospel preacher said this, quote, if you're struggling financially, then you've not got the victory. Whatever that means. He said, also, God didn't create you to be average or poor. So how can you learn how to be rich and healthy the way God really wants you to be? It's to come be a part of this church, right? That's the idea. This results in financial gain for the preacher and deceives the hearers. What's another one? Here's one I've heard that's pretty common in some youth groups. Pressure. Pressure to become a Christian. Hey, all your friends are becoming Christians. All your friends are getting baptized. They're all professing faith in Christ. Why don't you do it too? All your friends are doing it. That's a youth group strategy I've heard of. Really pressure them to become a Christian, to make a profession of faith, to grow the number of people in your church. That's an underhanded way. It's a disgraceful underhanded way. And it's crafty. It's cunning. Here's one that's popular. Try Jesus out. Hey, try Jesus out for a month. I promise it'll be worthwhile to you. Just give him a try. You won't be disappointed. Like a 30-day money-back guarantee on becoming a Christian. If you like it, you can keep him. If you don't, move on. Just give them a try. This is a really, really unbiblical way of making disciples. Jesus actually specifically says something very opposite to this when he says to count the cost of what it means to be a disciple. In Luke 14, 25 to 33, this is what it says, what Jesus says. So now great crowds accompanied him and he turned and said to them, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down and first deliberate whether he's able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple." Does that sound like give Jesus a try for a month? and then you can move on if you want or you can stick with it. It's no, count the cost of becoming a disciple. It's a very, very serious matter to say that you're a Christian. Count the cost, count the cost. Another thing Paul says is that he renounces tampering with God's word as a strategy. What's one way that is common people tamper with God's word? One way is the way of evangelism that is the altar call. We will get as many converts as possible. So the problem with altar calls is that it creates false converts. People are told that salvation is by aisle walking, by walking the aisle. Salvation is by repeating the prayer after the preacher. If you walk an aisle, you're saved. If you repeat the prayer, you're saved. Where's the call to repentance and faith alone in Christ alone? It's oftentimes left out entirely. It's come, give your life to Jesus, and you'll be saved when you walk the aisle. There's no gospel preaching as part of it. There's no gospel call to repent and believe. There's no call to self-examination. Are you converted? How do you know? They don't even bring that up. How do you know if you're born again? Is there evidence? Is there fruit that God has given you a new heart? It doesn't matter, oftentimes, to the people who do altar calls. Ultimately, it's a way of changing the call of the gospel and saying, walk an aisle and you'll be saved. For example, there's a prosperity preacher, T.D. Jakes. He did an altar call, and this is what he said in his altar call, and I quote. This is what he said, quote, you don't have to leave this room without Jesus. Come on down to the aisle. Make a personal commitment to Christ. Not a casual acquaintance, a personal, intimate commitment to Christ. If there is one, come now. Anybody? Anybody? Anybody? Then people start walking down the aisle. And he goes, in the 17 years that I've been a pastor of the Potter's House, which is his church, We have never had a Sunday morning that someone didn't get saved in 17 years. If we made altar calls, somebody came to Jesus." End quote. He's equating, you walk the aisle, you are saved. Every time somebody's walked an aisle, they've been saved every Sunday for 17 years. It's pronouncing salvation by aisle-walking for these people. Altar calls can boast of many so-called converts. You will fill your church up with them when people walk an aisle. Yet the people who do them oftentimes are not repentant of their sins and are not trusting Christ alone for their salvation. Now, I'm not saying that nobody's ever been saved during an altar call, but what I am saying is that they oftentimes produce false converts because there's not a clear gospel presentation, there's not a call to repentance and faith, and there's no call to self-examination to see whether you're a Christian. Also, altar calls are not in the Bible at all as a way of presenting the gospel. They are not a biblical way of evangelism. They are a gimmick and they are a way of tampering with what is the real gospel and the real gospel call to repent and believe. It's tampering or adulterating God's word. Something that often goes along with this, which is also a disgraceful and underhanded way, is emotional manipulation through music that oftentimes goes along with altar calls. Emotional music tends to get people to move physically down the aisle and repeat the prayer. My wife was a part of a church many years ago, and she used to do some of the music. And the guy who was preaching, who did an altar call, said to her, make sure you're playing the guitar softly in the background when I do the altar call. It really invokes the Holy Spirit. See, why did he think that playing a G chord evoked the Holy Spirit? Because he thought altar calls saved people. But they don't. Jesus saves people through faith alone, not through aisle walking or prayer repeating. But that is something that people have taught that tampers with God's word and tampers with the call of the gospel to repent and to believe in Jesus alone. Another way that is oftentimes tampering with God's Word or adulterating the message is simply just changing it, changing the message of the Bible. Just doing everything that the world wants, we'll just change it to appease them. You don't like, hey world, you don't like homosexuality, you don't like that the Bible forbids homosexuality? Not a problem, we'll rip it out of the Bible. You don't like Genesis and you want us to become Darwinists? No problem. He wants to become Marxist? No problem. We'll change everything in the Bible to suit your fancy. We'll change the message, all in the name of reaching the unchurched, reaching people for Jesus. We'll change the message of the Bible as much as you want, as long as you'll come to the church. You don't like X, Y, and Z in the Bible? Not a problem. We'll deny anything in the Bible as long as it suits your fancy. Proverbs 30 verse six, do not add to his words or he'll rebuke you and you'll be proved a liar. Don't mess with God's word. Don't change the message. Don't lie to people and say that God hasn't said things when he has said things. Don't add to it and say that he has said things when he hasn't said things. Stick to it, be faithful. And that's what Paul is saying here. He's renouncing all of these things that people do. Another thing where people adulterate God's word and tamper with it is they offer empty promises, unbiblical promises. Something like, life will always be happy and easy if you become a Christian. God says that Christians will be persecuted for being Christians. Contrasts that. Second Timothy 3.12, indeed, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. It's hard. It's a lie when people say everything will be real smooth and easy if you become a Christian. Just come on, make a profession and get baptized and all will be well with you. That's tampering with God's word. See, Paul rejects all man-made and unbiblical ways of trying to get people to call themselves a Christian. And instead he preaches the gospel with clarity and openness. Look at the text again, verse two. 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 and the sight of God. There's no secrecy, there's no bribery, there's no trickery, there's no tampering with God's word to get people into the church, there's no tickling of people's ears, there's no underhanded way of getting people to profess faith in Christ. He wants it to be truth, and for obvious reasons. What good does it do for someone to be a false convert? to bring them in by false ways. It does no good to them. It does no good to anything. All it does is, and oftentimes is the motivations that lines the preacher's pocket. But Paul's not interested in that. He's interested in people being saved. He's interested in glorifying Christ and preaching the gospel. It does no good to make false converts. It does a lot of harm, actually. Paul preached the gospel with clarity, he says, with open statement. He just laid down the truth to people. No bells, no whistles, no man-made church growth strategies. He simply preached the word of God to people. He preached it and gave scriptural support for it. There's no self-gain from his preaching, no tampering with God's word, no underhanded ways, no craftiness, just simple, straightforward, accurate, biblical presentation of the gospel, and that was it. So, if it's so straightforward and clear, Paul, then why don't people always believe it? Is there some deficiency in Paul's preaching? Because not a lot of people are always saved when he preaches. Why don't people believe? Is Paul being unclear, or is Paul's gospel veiled in some way to people? Why won't they just believe? If he's so clear and open about it, why don't people believe? Does he have the wrong strategy, people may be wondering? Paul, maybe you don't have the right strategy. Maybe you need to change your strategy up. People aren't really attracted to what you're saying. People aren't really listening to it. You don't have the right strategy. Well, contrary to that, Paul does have the right strategy. He says it's a straightforward, clear gospel preaching. That's the way we should do it. So why doesn't everybody who hears the gospel become a believer then? Answer, they don't believe because the gospel is veiled to those who are perishing. Look at verse three. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. Earlier in this book, in 2 Corinthians 3, this is what it says about the unbelieving Jews at the time, 2 Corinthians 3, 14 to 16. It says, but their minds, that is the unbelieving Jews, their minds were hardened For to this day, when they read the Old Covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed." See, the Jews, the unbelieving Jews, saw salvation in the law, in the Ten Commandments here. Salvation and law keeping, instead of seeing the law as the tool that God gave them to point them to Christ, show them their guilt, show them their need for the Savior. See, the law can't save, it can only condemn. That was their error. In Romans 10, 1 through 4, Paul brings this up about the unbelieving Jews. He says in verse 1 of Romans 10, brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them, that is the unbelieving Jews, is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness." So these people, these unbelieving Jews, they claim to have a zeal for God, they're really religious, but they do it ignorantly. They do it without knowledge, without knowing the Gospel, or believing the Gospel. They're ignorant of the righteousness of God. That is, that Christ's righteousness is the only way that they can be accepted by God. They're ignorant of that. And they seek to establish their own righteousness through law-keeping. And therefore, they don't submit to Christ as the Savior. They don't submit to Christ's righteousness, to God's righteousness there. That says in verse 4, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. So when somebody becomes a believer, they're no longer trying to achieve righteousness by the law. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. So either you're doing salvation, trying to do salvation by law keeping, or you're doing salvation by Christ alone. But see, the Jews trusted in the law. That was the problem. The veil is over their hearts. They don't see the right use of the law, which was to point them to Christ. They don't see Christ as their savior. That's the problem. It says in this text in 2 Corinthians 3, when the Holy Spirit converts someone, the veil is removed from the eternity of the Lord. They no longer see the law as the way of salvation, they see Christ as the only way of salvation. But Paul says in our text in verse 3, yet for those who are perishing, the gospel is veiled to them. It's veiled in their hearts, even though it's preached in an unveiled manner. Paul preaches it clearly, but yet to them, they can't see it. So the gospel's not obscure. It's not too hard to understand. It's because, the reason they can't understand is because of their sin, because of their rebellion, because it's veiled to them due to these things. Sometimes if we preach the gospel to somebody a lot, somebody we really have a heart for, want them to be saved, we make it frustrating and say, can't they see it? Why can't they see it? So they can't see it. They don't believe the gospel and they have no sound reason not to believe it, but yet they can't see it. It's veiled to them. They're unable to believe in it. So the question arises, why can we see it and they can't? Well, I'll tell you one thing for sure, it's not because we're smarter. It doesn't take a smart person to understand the gospel. Children can understand the gospel. It's not because we're less sinful either. And it's not because we're better than them in any way at all. Those who are perishing think salvation is by the law and therefore do not see the gospel as needful. They don't see Jesus as beautiful or as the savior that they need. They look at the law and think that they can be saved by it. They're deceived. They cannot believe. They want nothing to do with Jesus. See, 1 Corinthians 2.14 says this, the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. Likewise, in 1 Corinthians 1.18, for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it's the power of God. And John 3.20 says this, for everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his work should be exposed. And Jesus said in John 6.44, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I'll raise him up on the last day. So why can't they see? Why can't these people just see and believe the gospel? Well, look at verse four in our text, 2 Corinthians 4.4. 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. See, God will allow Satan to deceive those who are perishing. Those who are perishing in this text are those whom God has chosen not to save. They're the non-elect. They'll ultimately continue to not believe until the day they die, and then they will be punished for their sins in hell. They're not able to believe the gospel because God leaves them in Satan's kingdom to be deceived by him, and they're unable to see the light of the gospel because of that. They are blind, they are dead, they are enslaved to sin and to Satan. See, unbelievers, all of them, are under the influence of the devil. John 8 teaches us, Jesus teaches us there, that Satan is a liar and a murderer. In John 8, 43 through 45, he says this. Jesus says, why do you not understand what I say? His answer, it's because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there's no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character. He's a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me. See, every non-Christian has Satan as their father, Jesus teaches us here. See, Jesus teaches us that the unbelievers will do and desire to do what Satan desires them to do. So here's a simple question. Does Satan desire unbelievers to believe the gospel? No, obviously not. Therefore, on your own, unbelievers will never believe the gospel because they want to do what Satan wants them to do, is what Jesus says. See, they love sin so much, Jesus says, because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me. Because they love the lie rather than the truth. They'd rather not believe him when he tells them the truth. In our text, Satan's called the god of this world, in verse four. His kingdom is made up of all unbelievers. They are his servants and his children. Remember when Satan is tempting Jesus in Matthew 4, he offers him his kingdom. Matthew 4, 8 to 10, it says, again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their glory. And he said to him, all these I will give to you if you fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him, be gone, Satan, for it's written you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. So Satan has all unbelievers. in his kingdom. That's what his kingdom is made up of. All of his people, all the people who are not Christians are his. Jesus came to save his elect, which is a mass number, out of Satan's kingdom. But see, the only way for Jesus to save them was to go to the cross. So Satan's temptation of Jesus was this. You want these people, right? You're coming for these people? You can have them. You don't even have to go to the cross. You can avoid all that, that horrible thing that you're going to have to do. You can avoid it. I'll give them to you. All you have to do is worship me. Of course, that was a lie. There was no other way for Jesus to save his people or to obtain his people out of Satan's kingdom, but to go to the cross and save them by it. He was tempting him to sin, of course, to worship Satan, and to abandon his mission to save his people from their sins by going to the cross. Yet this text here shows us something, that Satan is the master of many people. He has a big kingdom full of many unbelievers. All unbelievers are his children, his servants. Even in Ephesians 2, 1-3, Satan energizes all unbelievers. He's the prince of the power of the air. He gives all unbelievers their marching orders. They follow him. It says this in Ephesians 2, 1-3, in the trespasses and sins in which he once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that's now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. It's everybody, by nature, follows sin, follows Satan, he is their prince, he is their master, their father. See, God has an elect people and non-elect people. We have in this text, in 2 Corinthians, those who are perishing, those who are not going to be saved. Everyone by nature is a sinner, all of us, in rebellion against God and deceived by Satan. There are people, though, that God will not save from Satan's lies. He will not save them out of his kingdom. He will not open the eyes of everybody. He will not remove their blindness. To those who are perishing, this text says, the gospel is veiled, and Satan keeps them from believing it. He lies to them and tells them, you'll need the gospel. And they happily agree. They'd rather stay in their sin. God tells us in Romans 9 about his elect and non-elect people in Romans 9, 21 and 24. It says, have the potter now write over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and the other for dishonorable use. See, what if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? in order to make known the riches of his glory for the vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom he has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles." You see, God has two categories of people that he deals with. He has people that he's prepared for vessels of wrath to glorify his wrath as justice, but also he has vessels of mercy, his people. whom he has given his son to claim them and to save them by his cross work. Those are the people that he has decided to glorify his mercy, his grace in. But God will be glorified by both of these categories of people. For those who are perishing, as this text says, they will be left in Satan's hands and continuously deceived by him and be killed. They will die in their sins and they'll be punished by God. Look at verse five in the text. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. Here is what Paul preaches. This is the clarity of the things that he preaches. The content of the gospel is Jesus Christ. The content of the gospel message is Jesus and what he did. See, preaching should not be about the preacher. to be about Jesus. He says we preach not ourselves, but Christ. I once listened to a sermon by a really popular megachurch pastor. And the sermon, as far as I could really stand to listen to it, went something like this. He started reading a passage from Romans. I couldn't tell you which one it was. And he prayed. And then he spent about 25 to 30 minutes talking about his family vacation and telling jokes about it. We need men who preach Christ and not themselves. 1 Corinthians 2.2, Paul says this, I decided to know nothing among you except Christ and Him crucified. It is not, hey, look at me, I'm the speaker, I'm the preacher, it's Christ and Him crucified. The preacher is nothing, Christ is everything. This is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3 about teachers, about himself and about Apollos. He says, what then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. Preachers, the teachers, are nothing. It's not about them, it's about Jesus. The gospel is about Jesus. We preach, not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord. Another thing, the gospel's not our personal testimonies. So I'm not against personal testimonies. They can be a good thing, they can be fine, they can be encouraging to others, but they're not the gospel. personal testimonies are not the gospel and that's not the message that we preach that the time that we got saved talking to uh... a mormon elder this past week a missionary, a mormon missionary he told me i should believe the book of mormon because of his personal testimony he had an experience he says that the holy spirit that told him this is real this is really god's word and it's transformed my life so you should believe it sadly Many Christians often think that telling their personal testimony is the gospel, just like that guy. They think they're preaching the gospel because they tell the story of when they got saved. See, the gospel is not me, it's what Jesus did. If you're telling your testimony, again, it's fine, it's good, you can be encouraging to other Christians. But that's not the gospel. Look at the text. We proclaim not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord. The Lord Jesus accomplished salvation for his people and commands all men everywhere to repent and believe in him. He is the Lord. That's who we proclaim. Jesus as Lord who has accomplished salvation. He's up at the right hand of God the Father and commands all men everywhere to repent and believe in him. That's the gospel call. Repents and believes the gospel. See, Paul lays out in 1 Corinthians 15 what the gospel is. He says, I remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you. And he goes on to say, for I delivered to you as of first importance that which I also received. Here's what it is. It's not his personal testimony. This is the thing of first importance. This is the gospel, he says, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, to the 12 and 500 other Christians, and then to James, all the other apostles, and lastly, to Paul. The gospel is what Jesus did. We proclaim not ourselves, we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord. Look at verse six. For God said, let light shine out of darkness. For God who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So I talked earlier about verse four, that those who are perishing will never believe the gospel. Those who are not elect will not believe the gospel ever. God's going to leave them in Satan's hands, in their own hands of sinfulness and rebellion. He's not going to save them. But for those whom God has chosen as vessels of mercy, for the elect, for those whom he has decided to glorify his grace and mercy in, it's a totally different story. 1 Corinthians 1.18 again says, the word of the cross, the gospel, is folly to those who are perishing. It's foolishness to them. But to us who are being saved, it's the power of God. Big difference there. The same God who spoke light into being in Genesis chapter one is the same God who shines the light of the gospel in our hearts so that we're able to see and believe it. Naturally, just like those who are non-elect, we naturally are in Satan's kingdom. We are naturally in a darkened state with darkened hearts. Ephesians 4, 17 says this about unbelievers. It says, they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that's in them due to their hardness of heart. That's all of us by nature, darkened in our understanding. We're naturally blind. But the Lord, Jesus, gives us spiritual sight. He says in John 9, 39, I came into the world that those who do not see may see. He also says in John 3, 3 to Nicodemus, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. See, the only reason that you can see the kingdom of God is because God has said, let there be light in your dark heart. He has freed us from slavery to sin, slavery to Satan, and has made us his own by his power. See, Jesus makes blind people see, he sets captives free, and he has no trouble doing it whatsoever. Why? Because Satan is not more powerful than God. Satan is not equal with God, he's not more powerful than him, he is weaker than God. See, I remember an image that was floating around social media years ago. And it was just the worst. Because it has a picture of somebody who's supposed to be Jesus, and it has a picture of somebody who's supposed to be Satan, and they're arm wrestling. And it's a battle of who's going to win. Like this post, if you're on Jesus' side, right? That's not how it is at all. It's not Jesus and Satan arm wrestling. Who's going to win? We'll have to wait and see. No, no, no. Jesus is far more powerful than Satan. Satan's a created being. Jesus created Satan. He's an angel, a fallen angel. Jesus totally conquers Satan, and he has done so. He plunders Satan's house. This is what Jesus says in Matthew 12 when he's cast out a demon. He's cast out a demon, and the Pharisees are saying, well, this guy cast out a demon by Satan. He says, that doesn't make any sense. Why would Satan cast out Satan? I'm not casting out demons by Satan. He says this in verse 28 of Matthew 12. But if it's by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed, he may plunder his house. See, all of the elect are the goods of Satan's house, and Jesus binds him, breaks down the door, and plunders it. He pulls people out of Satan's kingdom and saves them because of his work. through the power of the Holy Spirit. A very familiar text, Matthew 16, called the Caesarea Philippi Confession, when Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. It says this, Matthew 16, 15. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. The gates of hell, the gates of Satan's kingdom, will not withstand Jesus building his church, adding more and more people to his body, to Jesus' kingdom. He pulls them out of Satan's and makes them part of his own. And nothing about the gates of hell is going to withstand Jesus building his church, him breaking it down and pulling people out of it and saving them. The gates of hell will not prevail against Jesus building his church, saving people, saving his people. It's a mass number of people that he has chosen to save. Christians use the real gospel message as the weapon against the gates of hell. And the gates of hell will not withstand the power of Jesus through his gospel message, the Holy Spirit converting people by his power. Satan is no match for Jesus. Jesus saves people out of Satan's kingdom through his cross work, through the gospel. Way back in Genesis 3, this was promised. Genesis 3, 15. God, speaking to Satan, says, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise or crush your head, and you shall bruise or crush his heel. This is what it says in Hebrews 2.14 about that. It says about Jesus that through death, through Jesus' death, he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil. He has, by his crosswork, by his death, conquered Satan so he can snatch people out, plunder Satan's house, pull people out of his kingdom and save them. He has done it. He's done it by his crosswork. He crushed Satan's head at the cross, at Golgotha, the place of the skull. where the cross was driven into the ground, into the skull of Satan, symbolically. Satan's head was crushed when Jesus died because he accomplished salvation for his people and pulled them right out of Satan's kingdom. That's when he says, when Paul says, we proclaim Jesus as the Lord. He's the king, the master. Nobody can withstand his power. He's the Lord and he saves his people from their sins. So if you're a Christian right now, you are saved for one reason and one reason only, because Jesus has rescued you. You didn't do anything. You did nothing. You couldn't help yourself in any way. In fact, you didn't even want to. You were happily deceived. You were happily living in sin. It had nothing to do with the truth. Jesus said to them, because I tell you the truth, you don't believe me. but we should praise God that he has shown mercy to us to enable us by his spirit to see Jesus and to believe in him for salvation. As the text says, the God who said let light shine out of darkness has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus. We were blind. The gospel was veiled to us. We were in Satan's kingdom, deceived by him and happy to be. We did his will, following the prince of the power of the air, following after Satan, doing our father Satan's desires, but God has been so merciful and gracious to us so as to save us out of that. It should make us fall on our knees to worship God. See, we could very well easily been part of the group of those who are perishing. There's nothing in us that was lovely, desirable to God, nothing good that we've done, He's chosen us because he wanted us to glorify his mercy. He wanted us to believe the gospel and be saved by him. He loved us with such a great love as to send Jesus to die for our sins, to take the penalty, the wrath of God, the full penalty that we deserve Jesus took for us. Why did he do that? It wasn't because you were good. It wasn't because we were really, really wanting him to. No, we were nothing to do with Jesus. But He loved us even when we were enemies. When we hated Him, He loved us. And He came and died for us and has enlightened our eyes so that we can see Him and believe in Him. Amazing. Let's praise God that if we see Him and believe in Him today, it's only because of the grace of God, not because of anything in us. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank You. Thank You for sending Christ to save us from our sins. We thank You for the Gospel message. We thank you for your ministers of the gospel, for your apostles like the Apostle Paul, who is an example to us to be zealous for the truth, to oppose just weak and chintzy, fake ways of trying to make disciples of the nations. You have given us a clear and pure gospel message And yet many of us are so quickly, we can become bored with it. We're so sorry if we're ever bored with the gospel message. Let us never be bored with it. Let us always find it amazing and not try to introduce crafty ways or tamper with your word to make it more attractive. We know that salvation is by your power, as this text shows. Let us give us the boldness to face a world that hates you and that hates us just like we used to, to face them with the truth and not to back off, to face with boldness, giving them the full and true and pure gospel. And we pray that you will save them by it, that you'll pull them out of Satan's kingdom like you have us and show your power and show your mercy in that act of conversion. We praise you and ask these things for Christ's sake. Amen. Please stand and we'll sing our last hymn, number 77, Praise My Soul, the King of Heaven. ♪ And so dear, and so forgiven ♪ ♪ Do I beseech you still ♪ ♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ ♪ In the everlasting name ♪ ♪ Praise the God whose praise and glory ♪ Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia. In whose eyes and in whose hearts may Jesus our God fall. Alleluia, alleluia. Alleluia to Christ the Lord. Alleluia, alleluia, Alleluia, alleluia, Alleluia, alleluia, Alleluia, alleluia, Alleluia, alleluia, Alleluia, alleluia, Alleluia, alleluia, Alleluia, alleluia, Let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, again we come before you and thank you. We thank you for your grace, free gift of salvation that we merited in no way whatsoever. We would never have come to you apart from your drawing us, your effectually drawing us, giving us eyes to see, giving us ears to hear, freeing us from slavery to sin, and rescuing us out of Satan's kingdom. We owe it all to you, and you alone are worthy of praise for our salvation. We thank you for it. We pray that we will ever keep it in the forefront of our minds to glorify you as the lamb who has lain for us, as we will for all eternity. We praise you for Christ's sake. Amen.