2 Corinthians 4:1-6

Duration: 51min
2 Corinthians 4:1‑6
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Your servants for Jesus, saved for God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the Excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.
That the light also of Jesus might be made manifest in our bodies.
For we would live, are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake, that the light also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
Then death worketh then off the light, and you we having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written. I believed, and therefore have I spoken. We also believe, and therefore speak.
Knowing that He was raised up, the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with You. For all things are for Your sakes, that the abundant grace might, through the Thanksgiving of many, rebound to the glory of God, For which 'cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is.
Day by day.
For our light affliction, which is bought for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Well, we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. This chapter begins with having.
Seeing we have this ministry, what's it referring to? This ministry in the fourth, in the third chapter?
He talks about verse 7 if the ministration of death, ministry of death, written and engraven in stones was glorious, and again he calls it.
Verse 9 For the administration of condemnation be glory, and in between that he says in verse 8, how shall not the ministration or the ministry of the Spirit?
Be rather glorious, and in the end of verse 9, much more doth administration of righteousness exceed in glory.
The law held out a rule.
Which, if man had kept it, it would have been his righteousness.
But it turned out just the opposite. And you promised life this.
And thou shalt live.
That's the principle of the law. But no one did it. No one kept it. So it turned out to be, though it promised life for the obedient, it was death for the disobedient instead of an A righteousness which I gained for myself if I kept it, if I broke it, it was condemnation and judgment. So it's called the law, is called the ministry of death.
And condemnation instead of blessing. It was a curse.
Instead of liberty, it was *******.
So at the end of chapter 3.
Verse 17 says, now the Lord is that spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. The law is not liberty at all. Law is *******. And so he's contrasting the old and the new. The old covenant was *******. The new principle of the new was grace and liberty.
And righteousness, and that which the Spirit produces.
So it says, we all with open face unveil face, beholding as in a glass beholding, take out as in a glass beholding the glory of the Lord are changed, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord, the Lord, the Spirit.
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That's a that's a passage. You read it in the new translation. It reads even as by the Lord the Spirit.
That is, the Spirit of God is Lord, Lord Jesus is Lord, God the Father is Lord.
All deity in the Trinity. Then he says, therefore, seeing we have this ministry, what is it? The ministry of righteousness. It's an accomplished, subsisting righteousness before God, which we have in Christ.
And it's freedom, it's liberty, and it's the ministry of the Spirit. This is what characterizes the present dispensation. The present day of grace is the Spirit of God. It's the day of the Holy Spirit, and it's his ministry. And he's here to glorify and exalt and magnify Christ. That's the ministry that we have, that which exalts Christ.
The the first covenant, the principle of law.
Would have glorified and exalted man had he kept it, but he didn't have.
The ability to keep it.
And nor the desire to.
And so it's the ministry of condemnation and death. But now we have the ministry of the Spirit and the ministry of righteousness, not a righteousness which we work out for ourselves, but which is ours in Christ. He is now our righteousness before God, the risen, glorified man. And who is it that attests to this? It's the Spirit of God who came down from that glorified man in heaven.
He sent him down in Acts 2 to begin an altogether new, new thing on earth, and that's this ministry of the Spirit, ministry of righteousness that we now have that's gone on for 2000 years.
A tremendous, wonderful passage that we've read.
Ministry of condemnation and death though was glorious, wasn't it? So much so it says in chapter 3 that Moses face was shining when he came down off the mountain. He asked to see God, his glories, he asked to see his glory. And the Lord says you can't see my face and live.
It was too much, but he said I'll put you in a cleft of the rock and put my hand on you and pass by, and then I will take away.
My hand and you will see my back parts. And it was so tremendously glorious just to see the back parts that when he came off that mountain, his face was shining, so much so that the people were afraid of him and he had to put a veil over his face.
The brethren, in contrast, like a brother said, notice what it says in verse 9 of chapter 3, much more doth administration of righteousness.
Exceed in glory what we have far, far surpasses what they knew in the administration of condemnation and death. Oh brethren, we have been brought to know God.
What a tremendous thing in a world where the knowledge of God is not.
God is not known like we have been brought to know Him in the Lord Jesus. Just think of the treasure and that's the way it's presented in this chapter 4 verse 7. It says we have this treasure in earthen vessel. What's that treasure? It's the knowledge of the true God that we have in the person of Jesus Christ.
And the revelation now has been complete in the person of the Lord Jesus. You want to know God, look at Jesus. There you have the full revelation of who God is. Tremendous treasure the Lord grant us to treasure it in our souls, the knowledge of God.
John 16 the Lord Jesus could say of the Spirit.
He shall glorify me, for He shall take of mine, and show them unto you. And so one of the older brethren who has long passed away, used to say, If it glorifies man, it dishonors Christ.
And so the Spirit of God honors and glorifies Christ. Never mind.
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And as you were saying, Chuck, if man had kept the law with a glorified man, and the Lord says that man shall not glory in my presence. And the only man that ever did or ever will is the Lord Jesus. And through His work we shall be in that same boy. What a marvelous thing that is.
You're talking about the knowledge of the true God.
This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. So the knowledge of the Father and the Son is given to us, made good to us by the Spirit in our own souls, the whole Trinity working.
Towards that it was mentioned in prayer this morning.
That.
The Muslims.
It was said that the God that the Muslims know. No, they don't know.
Their doctrine is you cannot know the true God.
One they worship, he's unknowable. That's their doctrine.
So beyond man, so far away, so distant, that he's unknowable. When Paul was at Athens, he saw this inscription to the unknown God. They have an unknown God. We of all people on earth know the true God, and we have a relationship with that true God. They, they don't, they have no relationship to deity.
The one they call deity.
It's a terrible religion and.
It's it's the most wonderful blessing that we have. We know.
God, we know who He is, He's revealed Himself and the person of his beloved Son and the Spirit who is the truth, who reveals Him. And now we have the Spirit of truth dwelling in us to make it good in our own souls. Christ revealed him objectively. The Spirit reveals Him subjectively.
And you can't have anything greater than this. This is the ministry that Pauls talking about.
You contrast the old with the new. The old is law. The new is grace, The oldest man's righteousness, the newest God's righteousness.
The old is a curse on breaking it, the newest blessing because of what Christ has done.
Darkness and light. When the law was given, the God was in darkness. Now God is in light. I mean what a contrast. Thank you.
And life another 2 Completely different. That's the ministry that we have that Paul is talking about.
But how searching that is for us to profess?
To know the true God and have this ministration because this administration is not something.
For just a few that are sitting here, it's for every believer.
You know the true God then it should be evident in your life and that's why we have verse two of our chapter. We have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully.
But by manifestation of the truth, commanding ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
Necessarily, the light manifests everything we do. There is nothing that we can hide in the light. In fact, if a person tries to hide in the light, he only makes his defect that much more evident to all around. And it is been surprising brother. And when I was we were still living in South America.
One of the popular gospel preachers.
Here in the United States, his program was televised and and beamed all across Latin America, translated into Spanish. And then he had a moral fall. And I've never seen such a devastating blow to the Gospel as when that happened in Bolivia. It happened just before the Pope came for the first time to Bolivia, and it was a hard.
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Hard blow against the gospel, they said. That's the way those evangelicals are.
Brethren, necessarily it reflects on what we're doing in our life. Every area is searched out by the light. We cannot have anything to do with the darkness. None of us are perfect, but the light searches us out. Brethren, may the Lord grant us to live in the sense.
Of the fact that we walk in the light, like it or not.
Turn your back on it or not. The light still manifests everything we are, and so we need to walk in the consciousness of the fact that light is shining in on us. And then it says at the end of that verse 2, commend by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
And got such an important principle.
That we need to commend ourselves to people's conscience. That's the way the truth of God gets into the soul. And it has impressed me. When the Lord Jesus was here in this world, when he was asked questions, often times he did not answer the questions, He answered the conscience.
And you give the example of the time when they brought that poor woman.
Into the temple where the Lord was, and they surrounded her, and they said Moses in the law said we should stone this woman for adultery. She was taken in the very act. And what do you say they said to the Lord, thinking to trap him, those hypocrites that didn't bring the other party in that act of adultery.
But there she was, and the Lord Jesus didn't answer it first. He stooped down and wrote on the ground.
And when he stood up and finally answered, he said, He that is without sin amongst you, let him cast the first stone at her. He did not answer their question, he answered their conscience. And they were convicted, and they all went out, from the oldest to the youngest.
Oh, brethren, this is what we need to in seeking to reach souls, is to appeal to their conscience. I I have to confess.
There are times in speaking the souls, I want to present it in a reasonable, attractively reasonable fashion. But it's not that so important, brethren, as to appeal to the conscience of man.
That is what Scripture is teaching us here, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
That second and third and 4th, 1St all go together.
Because if we do not walk according to the second verse, if we have not.
Walked honestly then.
Our gospel is hidden.
And it hit to them that are lost in whom the God of this world, he blinded their minds. And the second verse is this, if you're walking according to the way of the Lord and you present the gospel and they reject it, that's a responsibility that now is not on you, it's on them. But the God of this world blinded their minds. But if we walk according to the way of this world.
And present the gospel. Then we destroy what you've just said.
And the second verse and the, excuse me, the third verse and the fourth verse really don't come into play. We've destroyed the testimony. We ourselves have destroyed the testimony. But if we walk right, then Satan comes in and destroys the testimony. It's like the seed that was sown by the wayside and it fell on Stony places and so on. But how important it is that we walk according to the word of God, according to.
Takes from the word of God.
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There was a man here that could say, Which of you convinces me of sin?
The Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please Him. This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight. And yet what did He do to him and nailed Him to a cross? Ligamony and shame I rejected Him. Who is the truth?
So I'm just saying this because.
Responsibility of man who hears the truth, regardless of how faulty I may be personally, the one that may present it to him, he's still responsible to receive the truth of God and about to it. It doesn't depend entirely on on us. In fact, it depends entirely on God working in the soul.
We're not. We're far from perfect.
And I know there are some that hesitate to talk to others because they they feel that well.
We're sinners saved by grace. There's no perfection in us. It's only in Christ. What we have to present to the world is that one perfect, glorious, sinless man who died for them on the cross. They have to do with him. And that's that's more important than.
Emphasizing how well I'm walking, although that's important.
Too.
For we've preached on ourselves Jesus Christ the Lord.
I think that's an important verse that you can all take the heart where we preach, not ourselves.
What you say, Chuck, is very true. They're responsible to God for what they've heard.
And if they reject Christ that are responsible to God for it. But if we are a stumbling block.
Be the story.
There's an incredible, seems to me, sobering progressions that gets us to verse five that we don't want to miss as to the moral principles involved. The world in which we live is.
Unspeakably.
Decadent and unabashedly and unashamedly open about the wickedness and the corruption which has flooded.
This land, but it says I'm going to read it from the new translation, Mr. Darby's translation in verse 2.
We have rejected the hidden things of shame. That's where it starts trying to hide what is considered shame. But.
The world little by little has less and less interest in hiding and it becomes more and more open. And so then you have the next step, not walking in deceit. And So what no longer is attempted to be hidden, people become more open with it. The tendency is to become more open, but to do it in a deceitful way to.
Even though it's not being hidden anymore to try to cover it.
Try to cover these actions in these ways, and to try to cover them and so in.
Men's hearts and conscience what was at one time given because it was shame is.
Allowed as possibly due to the kinds of philosophies and reasonings men have, it might be OK in some cases for certain people and we need to tolerate it and so it becomes a matter of of deceiving. But then it gets even worse. Not falsifying the word of God so that eventually men's hearts.
Will take that which had been hidden.
Because of the shame of it and that which they eventually seek to tolerate in deceitfulness. Then the final step is to twist the Word of God so that by twisting the word of God, they make these things as it were, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness. And so they even seek to somehow twist the word of God in. One of the things we hear is Christianity is love.
And love tolerates and love accepts. Love doesn't condemn. And so this is a very sobering progression. But why I say it, brethren, is we need to be concerned about it because that spirit in the world in which we live can rub off, you might say, on us. And we may not willingly do it, but we can take up with the spirit of that thing and we can become hardened to that, which is a very shameful thing that ought to be hidden. We ought not to be even thinking or.
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Those things.
And then perhaps the conscience becomes a little more hardened and we seek to cover certain things or excuse them. And then the saddest thing for a believer is that he would somehow try to support that kind of thing by his reading of the Word of God. And the result is.
That then the manifestation.
Of the truth, there is no manifestation of the truth. And so I'm just saying this is something that we not only look at the world, but we need to be concerned that we do not become hardened in our spirits and ways to what is there so that in fact we can indeed by our lives and by our words preach Christ Jesus Lord. It reads in the new translation, not Christ Jesus the Lord, but Christ Jesus Lord.
And ourselves, your servants, and so on. Well, that can't happen, brethren. As much as we want it to happen, beloved young people, it can't happen if we're not being careful that we not allow those things to hard maintain us as we walk through this world as believers.
I like the the way one put it when I was a young man.
He said our preaching should be so earnest.
That is so sincere, with such zeal, as though the results of our preaching depended entirely on us, all the while knowing it doesn't depend on us at all, depends entirely on God. Our life should be lived before our fellow men in such a way that they can't find a flaw.
Realizing there are many.
And.
They're responsible to the God that we're responsible to. You mentioned love, Doug.
I I read a pamphlet recently on the Koran.
That's the Bible of the Muslims.
Doesn't have love in it.
The God they worship is not a God of love.
They don't know the true God.
To call that a great religion.
Said so we could think.
It's false. Denies the only true God.
So does Judaism.
Three great religions all believe in one God.
We're the only ones that believe that there are three persons to that one God. The only ones we know, the true God the Father sent the Son and He sent the Holy Spirit, and we know who God is and we're in a relationship with Him.
Very near relationship.
But they don't. They don't know any of that, and it's so sad to commend even that kind of a thing.
I was thinking, Brother Chuck, as you were speaking, I think again, it's in Mr. Darby's translation there, and I believe it's Philippians, that as irreproachable children of God, we shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom he shine his light. And then it says holding forth the word of life. It's very striking that the thought of children of God, irreproachable children of God.
God comes first, shining as lights comes first and then next comes the holding forth the word of life. And I just say to emphasize what our brother has been bringing out. I I don't say we shouldn't preach the gospel because Satan will ever be seeking to discourage us from doing that by our by our failures and our weakness. But brethren, let's remember that if I'm not shining in some measures and irreproachable child of God before a world.
Crooked in reverse. What good are my words going to be when I hold forth the word of life? What power will they carry when there is no testimony in my life? First, as an irreproachable child of God.
The comment has been made at times. I think it came from one of the early.
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Church fathers, I'm not sure exactly, but the statement was preach Christ always, if necessary, use words. And that's really what Christianity is. It's just the radiation of the person of Christ, the God we have been brought to know. And that was the case with Moses.
He came off that mountain, his face was shining. Do people see a difference in me?
Then the general world lean around. It should be brethren, we have this treasure in earthen vessels that tells us in verse 7, verse three, it says if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. What a tragedy to have this treasure and not to let it shine. We're all guilty brethren of not letting.
The gospel shine, perhaps in the right moment.
But may the Lord help us remember the lepers on the outside of the city of Samaria said.
This is a day of good tidings because they had gone into the Syrian Army and found it completely deserted, and they found tremendous spoils there.
They said, This is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace. If we continue thus till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us. They had to go tell it, and there was tremendous blessing because of what those poor lepers had found.
That, O brethren, may the Lord grant us to let the truth of the gospel shine. It is a real challenge in today's world and I I honestly believe that is as much as anything, this tragedy that has happened in our country is to awaken us brethren, to let the true knowledge of God shine out.
What a tremendous blessing we have, and it seems it is.
Brought before us what the Muslim religion is and that it is not a religion of love.
Religion of hate and destruction. Do we have something better than that? Can we go to those people and say something of the true God that should be? Brethren? The case and I found, and I'm sure many have found, that people are open as never before since this, these things have taken place.
The Lord help us to let the gospel light shine in our lives.
To not show that truth, what are we going to say when we stand before the throne of God? It searched me one time. I was when we were living in Bolivia. A brother who wasn't that long saved said to me, came and said I want to go to where I came from. Down in Sucre area, in the mountain areas, you have to go in on foot.
He says.
I don't want it to happen in that day that when we stand before the throne of God.
And those people say there's Brother Hustino and he is saved. Why didn't he come and tell me the gospel? And now I'm lost. And so he felt stirred to take the gospel into his area where he was born and raised. May the Lord stir us, brother. And we really have a responsibility.
To let the light of the knowledge of the true God shine as never before.
Lord Jesus could say, let your light and what is it just what you were Speaking of, so shine before men that they may behold your good works and soul glorify your Father which is in heaven. And the importance of that was that your light shines first and then God gets the glory if you do any good work, good work.
But how important it is that the light of God? And that's what the fourth verse is.
Lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ it should read, should shine unto them the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. And that's what we carry about with us. That's the treasure.
It's been mentioned.
And rightfully so. And emphasized about letting our light shine.
And that's one of those wonderful truths that sometimes are allowed to remain a generality. We might well ask ourselves in a practical way, how can I let my light shine? How do I do that?
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And I would like to suggest something because of something I observed recently when Bev and I were on a trip to visit our dear brother out in the Northwest. And as we traveled, especially in the state of Washington, we'd stop for gas or stop here or there. There was something that was very evident. A lot of people were wearing jackets or T-shirts.
With the name the Seattle Mariners on it and a lot of people were talking about.
A professional athletic team called the Seattle Mariners. There was an immense amount of excitement. There were banners in windows. There was a tremendous excitement in men's hearts were filled with the potential hope of success for this professional baseball team called the Seattle Mariners. So people were wearing this shirt, these shirts, these jackets. You saw signs of it everywhere. But more than that, they were talking about it. They were.
About it, well, I would just suggest, brethren, if we want our light to shine, how excited are we about the Lord Jesus? How much does he mean to me? How, how much does his love mean to me? That it makes me excited that if I'm a young person, when I'm with a group of young people, I want to talk about what excites my heart. When I'm at work, I want to talk with those that I work with about what is exciting to me.
Do I really wear the testimony of what's important to my heart?
And so I don't criticize or say that to be hypocritical or anything, but brethren, it seems to be in a very simple way. That's one of the ways we can let our light shine is just to it says out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth. Speaker A good man out of a good treasure of his heart brings something forth. What is the treasure of my heart? What's in the abundance of my heart? Is it something that.
Belongs to a wonderful person, an infinitely precious one, who is the most beautiful object.
The one who loved me and died for me. Does he really fill my heart? Does that excite me?
And I don't mean that in a flippant way, but does that give me a joy that I just want to share with others? Because he is the object life suggests in our way. Beloved brethren, if we want the light to shine, maybe we could wear AT shirt and we could talk about something that excites us. But I don't think it would be a professional ball team.
The 33rd chapter of Ezekiel speaks of the Watchmen on the Wall.
And this man was responsible for the safety of the city if he saw the enemy coming and he sounded the alarm and there were people that were killed.
He went free. He didn't. He was not condemned because he sounded the alarm. But if the enemy was coming, he saw the enemy and he didn't sound the alarm.
And they were killed and his life also was forfeited. I know one brother in New Zealand was a very wealthy businessman and he had several 100 people working for him. And he was reading a brother in the Lord, He was reading in Ezekiel and he saw that and.
So he says, well, now I am the watchman for at least the people that I.
That worked for me. So he wrote up a track. A small track, but it's 63 pages long.
The the reason why and.
The last count I heard, over 20 million had been published and distributed.
We are the Watchmen on the wall and.
We know them that the enemy is.
The danger is ahead. And if if we do not?
Sound the alarm. There's a certain responsibility that we have.
That we're going to lose. Lose rewards at least for not sounding the alarm and proclaiming the gospel of the grace of God to a world that's perishing.
Right. Go back for a moment to Judges 7.
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Been commented multiple times but I think.
There's repeating that the first verses of this 4th chapter are illustrated by Gideon and Liz. Read several verses there and judges Chapter 7.
And verse 16 And he divided the 300 men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man's hand, with empty pictures and lamps within the pictures.
And he said unto them, Look on me, and do likewise. And behold, when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be that as I do, so shall ye do. When I blow with the trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow ye with the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say.
The sword of the Lord and of Gideon.
Well, brother, and I think these are helpful verses because they illustrate this chapter and maybe help us remember the message of it that God is put into everyone in this room's hand. A trumpet.
And we ourselves are pitchers in whom there is light.
And the Lord, the captain of the host, if you will, says to us, go and do likewise as he did. You can't have Sometimes we can be all trumpet and no light, or we can be all light and no trumpet. Both are given to us as our responsibility to Gideon, our Gideon.
That we would.
Sound the trumpet, the message from God for man at this present time, and also equally that what's in us would shine out. It's not what we know, but it's what's the the knowledge that's in the heart and it's that which shines out. And to me it's a nice thing because it here it says the sword.
What is God's sword?
For the world today, is that a physical sword? No. What's the Christian eras? If it were, what's the sword of the Spirit? It's the word of God in living power displayed to the world. And so it's really the sword of the Lord and Gideon that is to shine forth. But I also think there's a pretty difficult part to it because the vessels had to be broken.
And the analogy to the breaking of the vessels is inverses 8:00 and 9:00 because he says.
We are troubled, this perplexed, and we're persecuted. Many of us will go to great lengths to protect protect the vessel.
It is. We don't want a broken vessel. We do whatever is within our power to avoid trouble, to avoid anything that's perplexing to us, to avoid any persecution. But in actual fact, it was the breaking of the vessel that allowed what was inside, which the Spirit of God had placed there to shine out to those that were about.
There's a reference here. Excuse me, that go ahead.
When Peter walked on the water, he gave witness to the power of God to sustain him and to do that. But we know he failed. He looked at he looked at the waves and began to think. But we don't, we don't recognize Peter as the one who failed, but we recognize him as the one who did walk on the water. And as long as we recognize our failure as it's a part of ourselves and not.
The limit of God's power, then we keep things in the right perspective. And so we're always going to fail in our light and testimony brother and I think, but we don't get occupied with that. We we recognize that that it's a part of the breaking of the vessel and that it it gives witness rather to really God's real power.
And it's, I might, might just reiterate, it's, it's the beholding of the Lord that gives that light and power.
We we can't look within ourselves for power to give witness and light and testimony if.
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When Moses looked on God's face on the mount, that's what caused his face to shine, and that's the only thing that will make our light shine too, is looking to him.
Excuse me, Bob.
In verse four we have the God notice of small G It's Satan. The God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. The person says he doesn't believe God, he's blinded.
And you can put all the searchlights and most powerful lights on a person who's blind and he does not see anything.
What he needs is something to penetrate that darkness and it seems like a hopeless situation. But notice what we have in verse 6 and I think this is a reference back to Genesis chapter 1 when darkness was upon the face of the deep.
Darkness envelope the whole world.
And then it says God said, let there be light, and light penetrated the darkness. It was a word from God that penetrated that darkness. So it says in verse 6. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give.
The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
And brethren, is letting the light shine that's important? It may be in a way that seems very negligible to us. Remember the story of.
A preacher of the gospel that preached and somebody seemed to get saved afterwards, and he came up to the person that got saved and said, what was it that I said in the meeting that seemed to.
Help you see the light. Oh, he said. It wasn't anything you said. It was that Lady I was helping down the steps afterwards that spoke to me, that got through to me. You know, sometimes it's not anything that we value that much, but it is simply the light shining out of a vessel that gets through.
Brethren, let's let the light shine in any way possible.
I was impressed, too, with the story of a young sister who was quite timid and found it rather hard to speak to people. But in her office where she worked, she was the way she carried herself. The way she did her work, was such a testimony that one of the other ladies in the office came up to her one day and said.
What is it that you have? You have something that I don't have. What is it?
And so she was able to tell her about the Lord, and it resulted in the salvation of that other lady. Brethren, it's the light that is in our lives, is in our vessels. We know the true God. We profess to know Him. And that light, we need to let it shine out. If we don't let it shine out God.
And his faithfulness will allow these vessels of ours.
To be broken and like our brother Don was saying, that's not a very pleasant situation to have our vessels broken. But if he's put that that light in your vessel, he has not put that light in your vessel to hide, it's to shine out and the Lord Jesus said.
In the gospels that the light can be hid under a bushel or under a bed, and sometimes it's the business area of our life that we allow to become so so occupying that the light is hidden that's hiding it under a bushel or under the bed. It's just simple laziness.
Brethren, we need to be stirred to get out and to let the light shine.
And I like what Brother Dave said to that verse. He quoted, that they see our good works. You know, those workers, those relief workers over in Afghanistan that are in prison, There's two Americans over there. They were not really over there exactly as missionaries, but they were there as relief workers to help.
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The poor, hungry people in that country, and now they're being tried for propagating Christianity. They must have spoken something about the Lord.
And therefore, they're in trouble. What they see, brethren, is our good works. And good works is a way that people can see what we have inside. May the Lord help us, brother.