Encouragement for 2014

Encouragement for the New Year from 2 Corinthians 4

We continue this evening in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, 2 Corinthians the 4th chapter. We began looking at this text this morning, but we did not even come close to opening it all up, and we won't come close to opening it all up even this evening, but we will certainly make an attempt to at least summarize some of the great things found here in 2 Corinthians chapter 4.

Once again, let us ask the Lord's blessing upon our time. Our gracious Heavenly Father, once again, as we open your word in these precious few minutes that we have together, we would ask that you would meet with us, you would encourage us as we look forward to a new year of service to you, you would encourage us that we might, like Paul, be able to say that we do not lose heart, we do not become discouraged, we do not give up the task which you have called us to, but Lord, this evening, help us to understand what truly gives us pleasure and passion in the midst of our struggles, that is the great glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.

Help us to understand and make application, we pray in Christ's name, amen. For those of you who were not with us this morning, we began looking at this particular text in the context of looking at the upcoming year.

This is the last of the Lord's day of 2013, and it is very common for us to look forward to the next year to give consideration to how we might grow in godliness, make proper changes to our lives so that by the end of this coming year we might have grown in grace, grown in holiness, have accomplished the things that the Lord has called us to do.

We consider the fact that God does indeed have a calling upon each one of our lives, we are all servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we should give consideration to how in this coming year we might be better servants, but we know that there will be much opposition.

We know that we live in a land that is soaked in unbelief, that the Lord has been lifting his hand of restraint, that in our society today that which is true, honest, just, lovely, and pure is being turned upside down.

So that which is untrue is rejoiced in, that which is dishonest is promoted, that which is ugly is considered to be lovely, that which is unjust is considered to be proper. And when we promote God's law, when we promote that which is moral and ethical and right and godly, we know that there are many in our society who oppose this proclamation and would seek to identify us as being unloving and hateful people, primarily because they do not love God and they hate his gospel.

And so with that kind of opposition facing us, we need to have a solid foundation upon which we can move forward, a solid foundation that would keep us from losing heart. And so let us listen once again to what the Apostle says in these first few verses of 2 Corinthians chapter 4, the context being the ministry of the new covenant, the glory of that new covenant, and yet also opposition in the church in Corinth.

Paul has enemies there, and you can hear that in what he is saying. Beginning at verse 1, therefore, since we have this ministry, as we receive mercy, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the God of this world has blinded the mind of the unbelieving, so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

If we do not preach ourselves with Christ Jesus as Lord and ourselves as your bondservants for Jesus's sake, for God, who said light shall shine out of darkness, is the one who was shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

Amen. Now, we pretty much looked at the first two verses this morning, and this evening, since our time is even briefer than it was in the morning, I want to focus on just a few elements of verses 3 through 6.

The first is probably the one that most people would have the most interest in, and would like to have the most commentary on, and I'm going to spend the least time on. I apologize for that right up front, but in verse 3, most of us are automatically drawn in the reading of the text to this discussion of the veiling of the gospel and the God of this world.

Verse 3 again, and even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the God of this world has blinded the mind of the unbelieving. Now, immediately we catch that, and all sorts of questions come up, some of which I'm just going to leave you to think about maybe through all of 2014, who knows.

First and foremost, obviously, there is the question that you ask, well, why does Paul raise this question right here? Very clearly, when you think about the proclamation of the gospel, you think about the glory of the new covenant that Paul has referred to, very often people undoubtedly would have raised the objection, well, Paul, if it's all that glorious, how come there are so few of you folks?

Why is it that when you go into the synagogue, the majority of those that are gathered there who possess the word of God reject what you have to say? Why is it that there seems to be a veil over the mind of even your fellow Jews at the proclamation of the gospel?

And as you know, Paul addresses this subject more than once in his epistles. But in this particular text, we have an interesting phrase. Even if our gospel is veiled, and let me just pause for a moment, we certainly see that today, do we not?

How many times have we proclaimed the gospel with clarity to two different individuals, three different individuals, four or five, a group, and for some it's like pouring water on a waterproof surface, it just beads up and comes right off, it just doesn't seem to make any headway at all.

But then there's those others. They both heard the same message. They may come from the same background. It's not that one's more intelligent than another. There's something that touches with that person and they hear what you're saying and an interest is born and that we've seen that over and over and over again.

The terminology that he uses here is very relevant to where we are today. It seems like especially amongst the secular humanists of our day, you start talking about judgment, you start talking about eternal life, you start talking about the fact that our lives are brief and we can face judgment tomorrow and there is just a veil.

Now it may be a veil created by the humanism of our day, by the fact that we amuse ourselves, we don't think about, we hide ourselves from death, we don't think about eternity. There's very few people in our society that recognize the wisdom of the scriptures that says it's better to spend a day in the house of mourning than the house of feasting.

We always want to stay in the house of feasting. That's where we just want to live. The house of mourning, we've put it away. We don't think about these things and as a result you talk about judgment, you talk about eternity and you get this blank stare.

There is indeed a veil just as described here. But then there is a phrase, to those who are perishing. Just recently I had an encounter with a fellow who is not only a King James only-ist, but he is an anti-repentance guy.

He's one of those non-lordship salvation folks that you can be saved just by believing in Jesus, but that repentance stuff and all that kind of thing, that's not a part of it at all. A repentance-less faith, which of course is completely unbiblical and anti-biblical.

So one of the things that he wanted to focus on was in some modern translations, for example in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, you have that distinction, those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

Now the King James doesn't render it that way and he thinks that that's modern revelation and therefore if you have it, those who are perishing, that somehow this is a perversion of the Bible. The reality is, it is fascinating to see there in 1 Corinthians, obviously this is something that Paul had presented to the Corinthians, the idea of those who are being saved and those who are perishing is used in 1 Corinthians 1 in parallel with the elect, those who are being saved and those who are not.

Those who are perishing, there's a fascinating description of that particular language also just a few chapters earlier in 2 Corinthians chapter 2. Notice these words in verses 14 and following,. But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.

For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved, and among those who are perishing, to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. So once again, it's very obvious in Paul's language, this idea of those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

In 1 Corinthians, those who are being saved, the message of the cross is wisdom. Those who are perishing, it's foolishness. 2 Corinthians chapter 2, our ministry is an aroma of life to those who are being saved, to those who are perishing, aroma of death.

And so we have a background to this language, and so he says, if the gospel is veiled, it's veiled to those who are perishing. It's veiled to those who are on the path away from life, not the path that leads to life.

And he says, in whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so they might not see the light of the gospel, the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. Now, very briefly, I'm going very quickly because there's just so much here.

But very briefly, most commentators today in the modern period take the God of this world to refer to Satan, and Satan's action of blinding the minds of the unbelieving. Well, if they're already unbelieving, why would their minds need to be blinded is one of the questions that might be asked.

Well, could it be that the light of the gospel, the glory of Christ is so bright, so amazingly clear that if it were not for some kind of supernatural agency to cause them to close their eyes, to look another way, that it would have an effect upon them that the God of this world would not have it to have upon them?

Well, it's interesting to know that from the early church period onward through into the medieval period, that's not how this text was understood. They were very, very concerned about any being being described as God other than God.

And so they actually translated it, in whose case God has blinded the minds of the unbelieving of this world. Now, that is a very unnatural reading of the original language, but you would find a large majority of people from Augustine onward who took that particular perspective of this particular text.

In the modern times, there has been a very interesting book written within, I'd say the past six to seven years, maybe even a little less than that, by an acquaintance of mine who has sort of revived the older interpretation, but on a much more solid ground.

And that is, there are some who would understand the God of this world should not be a small G, but a capital G. And they would point to this as one of those judgment passages such as you have in John chapter 12.

Remember, in John chapter 12 at the end of Jesus' public ministry, we have these words beginning in verse 37, but though he had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in him.

And this was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke, Lord who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed. For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, he has blinded their eyes and he hardened their hearts so that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart and be converted and I heal them.

Notice, would not see. See what? Well, isn't that what we have exactly here? So they might not see the light of the gospel, the glory of Christ. And so is that a possibility? Well, I think it is a possibility.

I'm not completely convinced that the argumentation is yet, but that's because I haven't gone through every element of the argumentation. But there are some fascinating parallels to be found in the judgment passages in text like John chapter 12 and then going back to the book of Isaiah.

And if that is the background that Paul's drawing from, that would very strongly indicate that that should be the way that we look at it. But what I really wanted to try to spend our time on this evening, all of the few minutes that we have left together is the two descriptions that Paul gives here.

Notice the descriptions. Verse four, the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. The light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. And then, verse six, the same God who said, light shall shine out of darkness, is the one who has shown in our hearts to what?

To give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Now, are those just very flowery, poetic ways that Paul is speaking here? For those of you who read the original language, they're long genitive chains, descriptive chains that we can we can spend a lot of time sort of taking apart and seeing how all the elements relate to one another.

But what really catches my attention at this point and what I want to try to communicate to you, compare the two of them. First of all, you have the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

That's Paul's language. That's also the language of the writer of Hebrews. Remember Hebrews chapter one long, long ago, we were in Hebrews chapter one. And if you recall that, you remember that Christ is described as the very image of God himself.

That's high text in chapter one that describes him really as as Yahweh. If you look at verses 10 through 12, here is Christ and he is revealing God. So the the the line is the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ is the image of God.

So God is the final element of that chain. But then if you look at the last one, you have the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. So it goes the other direction. So within one or two sentences, Paul can sort of reverse the direction of his description, and he doesn't seem to feel there's any contradiction there.

I've often noted that the apostle will at times, for example, refer to the word of God, the word of Christ, knowledge of God, knowledge of Christ, very easily switching back and forth between the two without any sense of contradiction or problem there, which would be a problem if you don't believe in the deity of Christ.

But when you do, it's not. And so are these just simply stylistic differences for Paul, or is there something more to be seen? We have in both the idea of light. We have the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, and we have the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.

In both instances, it is God who is the one who must reveal this light, for example, in the judgment so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. But then for those who are not perishing, for those who are being saved, the God who said light shall shine out of darkness is the one who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

So it's fascinating to put these two descriptions side by side and to try to see, Paul, what are you communicating? Was this a sermon illustration that you had used amongst the Corinthians and so they had more of a background to it?

Was there a whole discussion that he had given on the subject of light and how God has shed abroad his light in the world through the gospel? Is there something along these lines? It's hard to say, obviously.

We can't know what all the things were that Paul had said to the Corinthians and the Ephesians. It would be wonderful to have mp3 recordings of all of that, but this is what we've been given, and so we need to consider what we have here.

If we look at verse 4, that which the unbelieving do not see, what they do not see is the light of the gospel. So the gospel gives light, it gives guidance. This is why we must, we must, we must remain focused, my friends, upon the purity of the gospel.

We cannot allow ourselves to get distracted by all the things that frequently distract the church. The only power that has been given to the church that can change this world is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It is the only thing that can change hearts and minds. It's the only thing that brings light is the gospel itself. And so we see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. If you don't preach a gospel that is centered upon the perfection and the power of the Messiah and having accomplished what the Father commanded Him to accomplish, then you are truly short-circuiting the power of the gospel itself.

The gospel is a glorious message. It's sad that in our day there are so many that preach a gospel that is primarily what God wishes He could do, but these days isn't doing very well because we're not helping Him out.

A gospel that does not have at its core the glory of Christ, the fact that He is exalted at the right hand of the Father, is a sub-biblical gospel. And it does not command man's obedience. It does not command man's bowing down before this glorious Christ to present Him as the Christ that so is often presented in the gospel today, of this helpless weak Savior that just wants to help us, but it's all up to us to enable Him to fulfill His mission.

That is not a full or biblical view of who Jesus was and is. And so it's the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. Liberalism with its sub-divine Jesus, liberalism with its chopped-up New Testament where we can't know anything about Christ and anything about the exaltation of Christ, His later developments and evolution and all the rest of that stuff, the sub-biblical gospel that has eaten the very heart and soul out of major denominations, is an unsaving gospel.

Because the Jesus whose glory is found in the gospel that gives us light is the image of God. And the glory of that to us is that when we proclaim the true gospel, we are telling men and women what God is really like.

We're not giving them our feelings, our emotions. Well, I've experienced God this way. The amazing thing about Christianity is the Incarnation. God has revealed Himself in the person of His Son. He has entered into human flesh.

When we look at Jesus, we know what the Father is like. So much of the world's religions, they're so based upon us doing things to try to appease God. There's always this wonder. There's always this doubt.

Do we really know that this is going to accomplish something with this God? Because what if God's a little bit different than what this prophet said or that prophet said? When God Himself in the person of His Son enters into human flesh, and He is the image of God, then we can have certainty.

We can have a solid foundation for knowing that what we say about God is true. It's not going to change tomorrow. It's not just the viewpoint of some prophet over here and some prophet over there. Since Jesus is the image of God, and since we know that God has accepted His sacrifice through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, His ascension to the right hand of God, then we know that the image of God that is projected to us by Jesus is accurate and truthful.

And hence, we can trust what He said. We can trust His gospel. And that is the core foundation for anyone in any difficulty in life to know that they can have peace with God. And there's nothing else in the world that even comes close to making that kind of presentation.

So it's vitally important that we take everything that the Scripture says. But then, as time is failing me, look at verse 6. For God who said, Light shall shine out of darkness. And that's not a direct quote of anything from the Old Testament.

I mean, the first thought across your mind is, sounds like Genesis 1. Sounds like, you know, God said that there'd be light, and there was light. But you start doing a little bit of a scan on your iPad or your phone, or Pastor Fry gets out a concordance, you know, and opens it up and goes to the L's, you know.

And you start going through there, and he's sitting over there going, it still works. And even when your battery dies, my book still works. So I understand. We could have a debate about it someday. But you look through all of the light sections in the Bible, and there's a lot.

There's a lot. I mean, this is a major theme in prophecy and everything else is this idea of light coming from God, darkness and separation from God, and light coming from God. And there's prophetic passages about the light dawning and the coming of the ministry of Christ.

And Paul's talking about the New Covenant, and there's light in what God has done in the New Covenant. And is this just a summary of all that? Well, I'm not certain. But I know one thing, light comes from God, and God is the one who causes light to shine out of the darkness.

And it's that God who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Now, first and foremost, you and I hopefully will not skip over something that is very, very clearly present in those words that sadly many people in our day do.

It is God who has shown in our hearts. This starts with God. This is something God has to do. You have judgment in verse four upon those who are perishing and those who are being saved. We didn't just look out on the horizon and go, I think I see some light there.

And so we stumbled through the darkness and we did our best and we got to the light and we found the truth. No, that's not how it worked. I think it's important that we keep in mind this is Paul who's writing this.

And Paul's conversion, well, there there's a little thing called light involved. He's on his way to Damascus. Here is a man steeped in his self-righteousness. Here is a man who is going to persecute the church.

And what happens? A light from heaven knocks him right off of his animal upon the ground. And what happens after his interview with Jesus? He's blinded. He's blinded. Jesus has to send one of his servants to Paul to grant to him sight.

Once again, he's in darkness. I don't think we should, we should skip what it must have been like for the proud Saul to all of a sudden realize that what he thought he was doing was the exact opposite of what he was doing.

That he was actually himself persecuting God's people. He was persecuting the Lord. What darkness that must have plunged him into. But then what light came to him in the revelation of who Jesus was. So we've got to keep that in mind.

We have to keep that in mind. And so with that in mind, light shall shine out of darkness. That's the one who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

So he shines in our hearts and he gives the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. So there is light and that light gives gnosis, knowledge. There is, we need to know our God.

We need to know who Christ is. And there is a supernatural level that yes, that knowledge is found in the pages of scripture. But I truly believe the spirit of God must change our hearts and our minds so that we will know so that we will understand.

It's one thing to take in knowledge. It's another to act upon that knowledge, to love that knowledge, to believe. And so he shines in our hearts and gives to us. We don't gain it upon our own, but he gives to us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, the glory of God.

Now that is filled with all sorts of old Testament meaning filled with all sorts. I mean, the kind of glory of God, the glory of God that came down upon the tabernacle and within the temple and leaves the temple and God's judgment comes and all these things, the knowledge of the glory of God in of itself, the amazing statement, but that's not where he stops in the face of Christ.

Now there is an amazing statement. Here is that, that, that astounding assertion of the Christian faith. God has truly entered into his own creation. We can know him. This is John one 18, all over again, noticing God, any time the monogamous, they asked the unique God, he has revealed him.

He is exegetic. He has explained him. I wonder what Paul saw before the darkness descended when that light came from heaven. He said, have I not seen our Lord? Did he say, did he see the face of Christ?

But the point is how on earth could the very glory of Yahweh be revealed in the face of anyone other than the divine son of God, Jesus, the Messiah, the whole idea that Paul's viewing Jesus as a mere man, a mere prophet, absolutely impossible in light of these words, the Jesus who is seen all through this, even the Jesus in the verse we skip verse five, notice verse five.

We do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as couriers, as Lord, it's literally just simply Jesus Christ couriers, Lord, the very word that is used in the Greek subject translation for the name of Yahweh in the old Testament.

That's what you have here. And so all through here, the highest view of Christ, why, why focus upon this? Well, remember what I said this morning, how do we not lose heart? Why did Paul not lose heart?

Because he had a passion, a passion for the ministry that was born from the fact that he knew the one he served. And here you have just some of the words he used to describe the one that he served. And the words are beyond human comprehension.

I don't know that we could ever plumb the depth of everything that you could draw from these words. But one thing's for certain, the gospel that is ours to proclaim is a glorious gospel. No matter what the world may say in mocking and deriding, don't ever, ever lose sight of the fact that the gospel you're proclaiming, even if everyone who hears it rejects it, is glorious in the sight of heaven itself.

To be rejected by men who are under the judgment of God, those who are perishing, glory, glory, see no glory, but they are not. Don't let the world be the determination and standard. Recognize that the message that is ours is glorious.

The one we serve is glorious in the sight of the only tribunal that matters, the tribunal of heaven itself. And that means our calling is a high calling, no matter what the world might say. You who teach the young people that the glorious calling that is yours.

Sometimes it may not feel like they're listening, but they are. And the message you have, never let it cross your mind that it's something that's prosaic, out of date, no longer relevant. It's a glorious calling.

It's a glorious message. And Paul could press forward. He could press on because of the fact that he had a passion, a passion born out of true knowledge of the one that he was serving. And so as we consider the year that is before us, the opportunities we will have to present God's truth, the opportunities we will have to serve, maybe even, yes, my friend, the opportunities that we will have to suffer loss, to suffer the disapproval of our fellow men and women, no matter what the situation might be.

Keep in mind that we serve a glorious savior and that God has shown in our hearts, the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, that we know God because of what Christ has revealed to us because he is the incarnate one.

Nothing, nothing should be able to dissuade us to keep us from walking straight upon that path. As long as we keep our eyes upon the glorious savior who is calling us as his servants to serve him and to give our lives in his service.

Let's pray together.