Amen. On the evening of June 8, 1941, C.S. Lewis arrived on the campus of Oxford University in England. He walked into the university's church, St. Mary's, and he ascended into the pulpit to preach the evening sermon. Of course, at this time, World War II was still raging. In fact, in the past year and a half, the Germans had dropped over 100 tons of explosives on Great Britain and made more than 70 aerial attacks on London alone. It was at this time that C.S. Lewis got up and preached for about 45 minutes to one of the largest audiences ever recorded at the church. The title of his sermon was The Weight of Glory, a phrase taken from what you've just heard read in 2 Corinthians 4. More than 75 years later, it remains one of the most famous sermons of the 20th century. If you haven't read it, I would encourage you to do so. I'm not going to spoil it by trying to summarize it for you. But I do want to read something that C.S. Lewis says at the beginning of his sermon. because something he says at the beginning sheds light, I believe, on a problem we encounter as Christians living in our modern world, and especially a problem we encounter trying to understand our text today, 2 Corinthians 4.18. He opens the sermon by talking about the deep desire and longing in every human soul for something greater than what could be experienced on this earth. He describes this deep longing as like the echo of a tune we have never heard, the scent of a flower we have never seen, or news from a far off country we have never visited. What makes the sermon great is that he goes on to show how modern people have no clue how to deal with these desires in the human soul. But if we'd actually look back to the ancient Christian scriptures, we'd find their fulfillment in Christ and what he offers in eternal life. But towards the beginning, he pauses, knowing his audience may be skeptical of this kind of talk, and he says this. Do you think I'm trying to weave a spell? Perhaps I am. But remember your fairy tales. Spells are used for breaking enchantments as well as for inducing them. And you and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake us from the evil enchantment of worldliness which has been laid upon us for nearly a hundred years. Almost our whole education has been directed to silencing this shy, persistent inner voice. Almost all our modern philosophies have been devised to convince us that the good of man is to be found on this earth. I wonder if you think that's an overstatement. An evil enchantment, a spell cast over the entire world, he says. He says it seems as if everything in this world is trying to prevent us from noticing we were made for something eternal. something unseen, something more, and we need a stronger spell to break it. Well, I think C.S. Lewis is spot on here, and I think his observations remain true. I don't think it's an overstatement to say that history has perhaps never seen a time when people were more opposed, more utterly unconvinced of the truth Paul teaches in 2 Corinthians 4.18. We know, our culture says, that the physical world and the things we see are real. We know that human reason, working through science, can deliver the truth to us. Beyond that, people say, we can't know anything for certain. Your religious beliefs may be sincere, but they're not based on reality. And the good news about eternal life may work for you, but it's not for everyone. So how do we respond to this? How do we as a church believe unashamedly and speak confidently about the unseen realities of the gospel? And equally as important, how do we live in this kind of culture? Well, I want to look at the context surrounding our verse today in 2 Corinthians to first see how Paul responds to these kinds of criticisms, because they may be especially intensified in our modern world, but they're not new, and he does deal with them. And then, once we've looked at the context, I want to dive into 2 Corinthians 4.18, because it's going to show us how to live the Christian life in a world dominated by unbelief. So first we're going to look at the context. One of the hardest but most important lessons I've had to learn as a Christian, and I think every Christian has to learn, is that you can't be cool and believe the gospel. Not if you're going to really believe it and believe it above everything else. And you definitely can't be cool and preach the gospel. And this has always been true. Paul was called a madman by political authorities. He was hated by his kinsmen. He was mocked by the intelligentsia. He was forsaken by close friends, all because he believed and preached the gospel to his dying breath. In 2 Corinthians, he's dealing with opponents who he says proclaim another Jesus and preach another gospel. and they're just doing it, he says, to gain a worldly following. He says they're just like everyone else. They operate according to outward appearance, but know nothing about how the gospel cuts to the heart. And in 2 Corinthians 5, in humility, Paul says, you know, I used to be like that. I once, he says, regarded Christ according to the flesh, according to what I could see with my eyes, I didn't see anything special. I hated his followers, persecuting them to the death, but not any longer because something happened, and more to the point, God happened. He says, the God of my fathers, the God who was there in the beginning, the God who said, let there be light, this God shone into my heart to give me the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ. So now Paul says, I see. I was ignorant before, I was blinded by my own sin, but now I see. And I see that all God's promises are fulfilled in Christ. In fact, Paul says, if you widen your vision enough, you'll see that in Christ, God is reconciling the entire world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. So now Paul says, I preach Jesus Christ and him crucified, that's all I do. And I do it so that others may see and believe as well. Paul was utterly convinced that this gospel had massive implications for every single human being. In 2 Timothy 1, he says, Jesus Christ abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. He says, I was appointed to preach this, which is why I suffer like I do. But he says, I'm not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed. If we want to make it through the gauntlet of worldliness, we must know Christ and the gospel in this deep and profound way. When Christ is beautiful to us and the gospel is big in our eyes, we can take a stand in any culture. But Paul says this also has implications for how we speak. He says he doesn't use underhanded ways. He doesn't try to peddle God's Word. He doesn't try to slip it in unnoticed to remain in good standing. He doesn't try to test the cultural waters to see what they will accept. He says he just declares it by an open statement of the truth. Now, he seeks to persuade. He desperately wants them to believe it, but he gives it to them straight. And if people don't see it, if they don't believe it, it's not because it isn't true. It's because he says they're blind, blinded by the God of this age, blinded by their own sin like he was and refusal to come into the light. So when the true gospel is preached in power it reveals that we don't know what we think we know and we don't see what we think we see. So our response today to this kind of unbelieving culture should be modeled after the Apostle Paul. We must know deeply whom we have believed. and we must lovingly seek to persuade others by an open statement of the truth, knowing the gospel is the power of God to save sinners. However, we also know that adopting this biblical mindset doesn't solve all our problems. Life in a fallen world goes on. It's true that anyone who is in Christ is a new creation, but it's also true that our old sinful habits still remain. We still struggle with anxiety, lust, and pride. We still love things we shouldn't love. And the vast majority of the world doesn't seem to care all that much about Christ and the gospel. So how do we explain this? Well, this is also the context of 2 Corinthians 4. There is an almost unbearable tension in the world. And the Bible talks about this tension in many ways. It says the kingdom of God has come in Jesus, but the kingdoms of men still remain for a time. It says salvation is already here, but it's not yet complete. It's very hard to understand the Bible apart from understanding this basic and fundamental biblical truth that God has decided to redeem sinners and save the entire world, not all at once, but in stages. In Hebrews 2, it says that God has promised to put everything in subjection to Jesus. But then in Hebrews 2.8, it says, at present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. See is the key word for us today. With our physical eyes, we can't now see it. This was the problem Paul's seeking to address in 2 Corinthians and especially in 2 Corinthians 4. Because his opponents were making much of the fact that his ministry was not very appealing to the human eye. Where's the power? Where's the success? Where's the popularity? They would say. Paul has a weak body. He's a weak preacher. And everywhere he goes people beat him up. Is this the guy you want to follow? And Paul's response to the church is simple. We don't look at things the same way anymore. We don't see things the same way. So for instance, in 2 Corinthians 4.16, he says, yes, our bodies are breaking down and wasting away, but God's Spirit is at work in human hearts. He is renewing us in preparation for our resurrected bodies. So what if his body falls apart? He says, God has prepared for us a better one. And then in verse 17, he says, yes, we are suffering affliction and severe persecution, but God is using it to prepare for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. So we should consider this light and momentary. We can read this many times and still find his words incredible. It's like, how do you know this, Paul? How do you know this? And that brings us to our text today, 2 Corinthians 4.18. Paul says, we know this because we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient or temporary, but the things that are unseen are eternal. I want to make a couple of observations on this verse and then give you the main point of the sermon today, the main thrust of what I think Paul is trying to get us to understand. And then after that, we'll draw out some clarifications and implications of this verse. So first, a couple observations. The word look in this verse is what the ESV renders look. It's meant to convey the sense that we're supposed to fix our eyes on something. It's not a casual glance. So the translation that says, we fix our eyes is a good translation. The same word is used by Paul in Romans when he says, watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught. So it means we must pay careful attention to something. And in this verse, we must pay careful attention to what is unseen. It requires our constant focus. And then you'll notice in the last part of the verse Paul gives the reason we must pay careful attention to this. He says the things that are seen are transient but the things that are unseen are eternal. And this last clause is the central issue for us in understanding this verse. It's also a good summary of Paul's entire theology in 2nd Corinthians and especially this section. He says, essentially, here's the deal. The things that you see with your eyes right now, they're temporary. They won't last. But the things you can't see, the things that are unseen, those things are eternal. They last forever. So focus on those things. It's important to notice that Paul is speaking to believers here. He's talking to Christians. He says a couple of those verses earlier, since we have the same spirit of faith, so we have the same spirit of faith, but what he's teaching us here is that the Christian life is to be lived in the same way it began, by faith, by seeing the unseen. It's how we make it through the world. Paul's letters to the churches generally contain two fundamental truths about the Christian life. He says first when we see Christ initially we're justified, we are now in Christ. But he also teaches that Christ is now in us and Christ goes to work in us, sanctifying us to help us see how everything ought to revolve around him, to help us see how we need to see everything according to Christ. Some of you may be aware of the vast amounts of movies and TV shows and books that portray a zombie apocalypse. If you've ever watched one of these shows or read one of these books, you know that when things start to go down, the values and priorities of everyone changes. It doesn't matter who has money anymore. It matters who has weapons and the ability to survive. The directors and writers love to show Nice houses and cars and buildings abandoned. Class distinction in society erased. Everything has been reversed. It's also interesting, kind of off the point, but how everyone who's infected seems to become a world-class sprinter. It's like, I know this is a movie, but that body can't run that fast. But the point is the whole world has been turned upside down. That's what they're trying to portray. Well isn't it interesting in Acts 17 when Paul and Silas come to Thessalonica the men inside a mob when they shout, these men have turned the world upside down. They say there's another king, Jesus. Basically they're saying these men create a mini apocalypse wherever they go. And this is just what the true gospel does. It's exactly what happened to the Apostle Paul. When God revealed Christ to him, it destroyed his world and changed the way he saw reality. The best summary of this for the Apostle Paul, I believe, is in Philippians chapter three. If you'll remember Philippians chapter three, Paul says, if anyone has reason for confidence in the flesh, if anyone has reasons for confidence in their earthly life, it's me. I had it all. I was set. My life was great. It was one of continual advancement beyond my peers. But now, he says, I count it all as loss. I willingly lose it all. And even more than that, I count it as worthless for the sake of Christ. And now, he says, all I want is to know him. And I want to know him by sharing in his sufferings. And then he says, by becoming like him in his death. And with each successive statement, you can see it gets harder and harder to follow Paul. He starts in saying, I want to know Christ. It's like, I want to know him too. I want to know him too. And he says, I want to suffer like him. It's like, that's interesting. And then he's like, I want to become like him in his death. It's like, well, I don't know if I understand that. And then Paul gives the reason for this. He says at the end of that section, that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection of the dead. By any means possible. He says this life is nothing compared to that one. I want that life, the unseen resurrected life, and I'll give up everything for it. This, I believe, is what Paul wants for us as we read 2 Corinthians 4. He wants us to follow this mindset. So the main point of my sermon today, building upon the illustration, is that the goal of the Christian life is to continually have our world turned upside down by seeing the gospel of the glory of Christ, so that what is eternal becomes most valuable to us. Let me repeat that. The goal of the Christian life is to continually have our world turned upside down by seeing the gospel of the glory of Christ so that what is eternal becomes most valuable to us. Paul says that the gospel of the glory of Christ is a great treasure to be seen. And it's something that ought to completely redirect our lives. And it's by beholding this treasure, he says in 2 Corinthians 3, that we are changed. So that is the main thrust of what I think he wants us to understand in 2 Corinthians 4. But however, if you read the verse again, there's a couple issues that maybe still need some clarification. So let me give three clarifications about 2 Corinthians 4, 18. First, when Paul is talking about seen versus unseen, or temporary versus eternal, we shouldn't think he's making a division primarily between the physical and the spiritual, or between the material world and the immaterial spirit world. Now to be clear, there are unseen spiritual realities he wants us to know about. He wants us to believe spiritual things are real. But we don't want to get the idea that what Paul thinks is real and valuable is what's spiritual, not physical. Rather, seen versus unseen relates to past, present, and future realities that are often physical, but not available for us to see right now. So for instance, Paul says in chapter five, we know that if our physical bodies die, we have a body that God has prepared for us, eternal in the heavens. He says in this body we groan. We don't want to be unclothed, we want to be further clothed. We want a new body, a better one. So seeing versus unseen is not a division between physical and spiritual, but rather it relates to the realities that we don't have access to right now with our eyes. Here's a second clarification. Some of you may be asking, but Paul talks about seeing the unseen now. He says we must look at it. How do I see it now? Well, Paul assumes this makes sense to say, look at what you can't see because he's taught on this issue all over the place. And what he means is seeing by faith. He says the same thing a couple of verses later in 2 Corinthians 5 where he says, we walk by faith, not by sight. Now the term faith is used all over the world today by Christians and non-Christians so my fear would be that you wouldn't understand what Paul means by faith when he says we walk by faith and not by sight. Perhaps the biggest lie about faith is that it's some kind of leap into the dark where we just strain to believe something we know isn't true. The world calls faith a projection of what you want to believe, but you don't have any evidence for. A projection of what you want to believe, but don't have any evidence for. Well, I hope you know the Bible says the exact opposite of that, the exact opposite. In the best translation of Hebrews 11.1, it says, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So according to scripture, God is able to give us evidence for what we don't currently see. And in Ephesians 1, Paul says he does this by enlightening the eyes of our hearts. There is a way to see with your heart. The God who made our physical eyes also made our hearts, and he created a way for us to see reality in a more fundamental way than with our physical eyes. And this is why later in Hebrews 11 it says Moses endured seeing him who is invisible. Now in Romans 10 Paul says faith comes by hearing. So think of it this way, when we hear the word of God it pierces to the heart and portrays for us the eternal realities of the gospel. The gospel makes what is invisible to our eyes visible to the eyes of our hearts and we can actually see it. And our possession of this sight is what the Bible calls faith. It's the spiritual ability of the human heart granted to us by God whereby we see and know him so that we might trust him and love him above everything else. Now the world is constantly teaching the opposite. They say, just trust your reasoning, trust your physical senses. This is where we access reality. This is where we know what's real, with our minds, with our eyes, and taste and touch. But they ignore the fact that we were created by an invisible God, and we were created in His image. We are fundamentally spiritual beings. And the Bible teaches that this is where the fundamental problem is. Our hearts and our souls are darkened. And this has a catastrophic effect on our eyes and on our minds. And the good news of the gospel is that God is dealing with our biggest problem first. He takes ultimate reality, the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, and brings it right to the center of our being, right into our dark hearts. And the light of Christ explodes the darkness and shows us the way things really are. And the gospel is God summons to get real. how we are great sinners and God is a great Savior. So faith is not a decision to believe something apart from any evidence. Rather, it is where God takes the evidence of what Christ has accomplished in space and time in the real world and portrays it through words for us to see in our hearts. And these eternal truths are not visible to our eyes, but we can see them by faith. One more thing needs to be clarified, and I've alluded to it several times, but it's a crucial idea for this verse, for looking to what we cannot see. What is the currency of faith? What is supposed to enlighten the eyes of our hearts? Our physical eyes take in images. What do the eyes of our hearts take in? And the answer is words, and specifically God's words. Now I know what you may be saying, is this where we've come to? You're just going to tell us to read our Bibles? Well, not exactly. Perhaps you've heard the wise saying, if you want men to build a ship, don't tell them to go cut wood, but teach them to long for the vast and endless sea. And I want you to read your Bibles like your very life depended on it, because it does. But I want to do this not by just telling you to do it, but by showing you how important God's Word is for us to see what is unseen. Just consider one verse with me. At the end of Matthew 24, Jesus gives this amazing statement. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. Jesus is saying that everything you see with your eyes, every aspect of the created order, it will pass away. But the words I speak will never pass away. They'll never wear out. They'll never grow old and they'll never cease to grow to be true. I think it's appropriate to say in light of this that his words are eternal words. And it's really amazing to just meditate on this concept. Time has zero effect on his words. The physical world has zero effect on his words. Hundreds and thousands of scholars seeking to soften and obscure and erase his words have zero effect on his words. And this is why across the scripture, God makes this radically counterintuitive claim. His words are more sure, more certain than what we can see with our eyes. This was a lesson he taught to Abraham when he let Abraham and Sarah grow old and weak and almost dead before he gave them a child. He did this to show them that you don't rely on your eyes or your reasoning or your senses, you rely on the word of God. And this is why many teachers in church history have said we must see the world through words, through God's word. The Word of God must so fill us up, so clarify our vision, that when we walk through the world, everything is judged rightly. Everything is judged according to Christ. We see what is good and true and what is false and destructive. We see what is eternal and lasting and what is temporary and fleeting. The great danger for every person here is that the opposite of this would happen. that we might let our physical eyes and our own minds determine what is real and true and then hear God's word and decide for ourselves what seems plausible, what seems good to us. That is the sure path to wasting your life and it's a way to a fearful judgment. So if we are to see the gospel of the glory of Christ so that what is eternal becomes most valuable to us, we must prioritize the word because it is the word of God that makes the eternal visible to the eyes of our hearts. I want to talk about two implications for this verse for everyone here this morning. First, it may be the case that you're here today and you don't see Christ the way I have described Him. You don't see the gospel as something so good at all to turn your world upside down. Let me just caution you with this word from Jesus. He warned over and over again about those who have eyes but cannot see, who have ears but cannot hear. The point is that some people seem to be in perfectly fine physical condition. Their eyes seem to be working, but they don't see what they're supposed to see. They don't see what they were created to see. Something is clouding their vision. We see this truth in John 8, where Jesus says, His words found no place in them, and that's why they were seeking to kill Him. They were full of self-love. They had haughty eyes. And they could only see themselves as the center of the universe. So when the center of the universe actually appeared before them, they could only see a threat. So I would just plead with you, don't be like that. Jesus really is a sight to behold. And in him, there is something infinitely valuable to see. If you don't see him, I would just humbly say to you, the problem is with your eyes. And there's only one remedy. Like Bartimaeus in the Gospels, you must come to him and say, Lord, I want to see. He can open your eyes and everyone who calls on his name will see. And let me make a final appeal to everyone who does believe here this morning. The fundamental sin in the Old Testament was idolatry, the worship of images made by man instead of the worship of the eternal, invisible God. And the New Testament authors continue to warn Christians, people who have been converted, about idolatry. John ends his first letter by saying, little children, keep yourselves from idols. Idols are powerful not because they provide some strong intellectual argument for them to be adopted, but because they offer immediate satisfaction and security. They are right before our eyes, they're right there, and we can have it now if we want. And our culture has become expert at offering idols to us through images. And our images are images of the good life that provide immediate satisfaction and security. If only you'll give your life to it, success, wealth, fame, sex, influence. Our idols are legion, there are many, but their message is the same. Live for something now, something temporary. And this is a false and destructive message. And I think the great danger for us is not that we might see them and then suddenly sit down and rewrite our doctrinal statements. That's not how idols work. The danger is that by losing focus, by uncritically letting them pass before our eyes through the myriad and myriad of screens in our world, we might slowly be attracted to the temporary idols offered to us and our hearts drift away and our sight of Christ grow weak. The great need of the hour is faith. Peter says our faith is more precious than gold. It's the most precious temporary thing you possess, your faith. And the reason it's that precious is because it gives you a window, a view, into the eternal riches of Christ. It connects you to the world that is real and to which nothing on earth compares. So if faith is a fight, as Paul says, and if faith comes by hearing, As he also says, I think we should each consider how to fight the good fight of faith by giving priority to our ears over our eyes. Think through for yourself how you can fight to hear God's voice above everything else. And if we do this, we will be able to break the evil enchantment of worldliness laid upon us. and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this congregation. Thank you for your word which enlightens the eyes of our hearts, Lord. I pray that we all might be encouraged to see the glory that is in Christ Jesus, to follow him, and to willingly lay down our lives for His sake. Give us eyes to see, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.