THE GLORY OF GOD DISPLAYED IN THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST

The Glory of God Displayed in the Gospel of Christ
(2 Cor. 4:1-7)

A sermon preached at Beachgrove Baptist Church

In the year of our Lord 1765, seven years after the death of the great evangelical theologian, Jonathan Edwards, some of his previously unpublished works were published posthumously. One of these works was entitled: "The End for which God Created the World." In this comprehensive treatise, Edwards fleshes out the proposition that all things material and immaterial, animate and inanimate, were created expressly for the glory of God. Towards the end of the book, Edwards sums up His whole proposition like this: "All that is ever spoken of in the Scripture as an ultimate end of God’s works is included in that one phrase, ‘the glory of God.’" And this is undoubtedly the only sensible conclusion we can come to if we truly submit ourselves to the message of Scripture. Lets briefly look at a few passages of Scripture that affirm this proposition.

God is jealous for His glory
(Isa. 48:11) "For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another."

(Ps. 72:19) "blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory."

The inanimate creation was made for His glory
(Ps. 19:1) "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament displays His handywork."

Human Beings were created for His glory
(Isa. 43:6-7) "I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring
my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him."

What happens when humans fail to give Him the glory due His name
(Acts 12:23) "And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died."

Sin is sinful because in it we fail to glorify God
(Rom. 3:23) "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

Christ’s incarnation and sacrifice were ultimately for His glory
(Phil. 2:7-11) "But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

If I were to ask the average Christian why Christ died to save us, I guarantee you the answer would be: because He loves us. But notice what Scripture says in Ephesians chapter 1.
(v.5-6) "He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace.

(v. 11-14) "We have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation – having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

In the passage were looking at today, the message Paul wants to communicate to us is that the entire drama of human redemption exists and is worked out in human experience precisely for the glory of God.

1. CHRIST’S WITNESSES MUST WALK WITH PERSEVERENCE AND INTEGRITY, IN ORDER THAT THE GLORY OF GOD MAY BE DISPLAYED. (v. 1-2)

• "as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart" – Paul is telling the Corinthians here that he and Timothy, regardless of what difficulties they may encounter, will never give up, they will never give in, they will never lose heart. If there is one word that could summarize the ministry of the apostle Paul it would be perseverance. (see 2 Cor. 11:24-28)
• We also must persevere in the particular ministry to which God has called us.
  (Heb. 3:14) "For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm unto the end."
  (2 Cor. 1:7) "Our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comforts."
  (1 Cor. 15:58) "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord."
• "we have renounced the things hidden because of shame" – Paul now shifts gears a bit and reminds the Corinthians that he and Timothy are men of integrity. Their integrity is to be seen in two primary places: first, in the fact that they have renounced sinful behavior, and second, in the fact that they preach the pure Word of God.

• First, we are to glorify God, we must renounce sinful behavior. Every Christian stands as Christ’s representative on earth. And in this respect, anything that Christ would not do, we must not do either.

• The Christian church today has very little integrity with regard to this issue. Paul refers to sin in this passage as "the things hidden because of shame."

• There used to be a time when people were ashamed of sinful behavior. But today, we see it everywhere. People are not ashamed of sinful behavior anymore. Not only is such behavior practiced out in the open, but in many cases it is celebrated and defended.

• I recently read a blog entitled "Christian Potty-mouths." In this blog, the author was expressing his astonishment at the language being used within some Christian circles. He is right to find fault. The amazing part if this story is that several Christians left comments on his blog claiming that "this is not something we need to get all worked up about." They tried to argue that this was a minor issued and those who would call a Christian out on the carpet for the use of foul langluage were being legalistic. But until such people can open up the Bible and prove to us from Scripture that Jesus would have used, and would now approve of the use of foul language, we need to live up to our responsibility to Christ's representatives on earth and obey the injunction found in (Eph. 4:29) "Let no unwhoesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification. . ."

• "not adulterating the Word of God" - The integrity of Paul and Timothy is not only seen in their renunciation of sinful behavior. It is also seen in the way they deal with the Word of God. Paul tells us in (2 Tim. 2:15) "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of God." Paul and Timothy were determined to preach and teach the pure word of God. They would not pervert it with their own agenda, they would not embellish it with their own perspectives. But rather, they took pains through propor exegesis and the application of hermeneutics, to ensure that the message that they were preaching and teaching was the very message of Scripture. And every person called to preach and teach the Word of God today, must take the same pains in order to preach the pure Word of God or else be disqualified from their ministry.

• THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL DISPLAYS THE GLORY OF GOD EVEN WHEN SINFUL MAN CANNOT SEE IT. (v. 3-4)
  These two verses are summed up beautifully in the third stanza of that old glorious hymn entitled "Holy, Holy, Holy."

"Holy, Holy, Holy! Though the darkness hide Thee,
Though the eye of sinful man, Thy glory may not see;
Only Thou art holy, there is none beside Thee,
Perfect in power, in love, and purity."

• The message if this song is the same as the message in verses 3 & 4 of our text. Sin and death have blinded the eyes of the natural man so that he is unable to see the glory of God displayed in the gospel of Christ. Notice, Paul says the light of the gospel is only hidden or veiled to those who are perishing, that is, those whose minds have been blinded by "the god (small 'g') of this present world."
• But let us be crystal clear about something. Satan has not won any victory here! He is no competitor with God! He is a dog on a leash and he only gets what God allows him to take.
• Scripture tells us plainly why the eyes of some are blinded. (Jn. 12:39-40) "For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said, ‘He has blinded their eyes and He has hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart, and be converted and I heal them.’"
  And again, after Jesus condemns the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum for their unbelief in (Matt. 11), He says in (v.25-26): "I praise You Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight."
• God is glorified even in the fact that some have been blinded to the truth. In (Rom. 9:22), Paul asks: "What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?" And then he tells us at least one reason why God has prepared some vessels for destruction in (v. 23), "He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory."
• The big picture is this: the glory of God will be displayed in the gospel of Christ regardless of how humans respond to it. Have they been given the ability to receive it by faith? God will be glorified! Have they been blinded? God will be glorified still! Let us remind ourselves of God’s own words once more in (Isa. 48:11) "For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another."
• THE GLORY OF GOD IS DISPLAYED IN THE WEEKNESS AND HUMILITY OF THOSE WHO CARRY THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. (v. 5-7)
• "We do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord." -- The first thing we see here is that Paul and Timothy were not out to make a name for themselves. They were humble.
  In (1 Cor. 2:1-5) Paul told the Corinthians: "When I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest in the wisdom of men, but on the power of God."
• Paul was a very educated man. He was a Pharasee of the highest order. He would have been a master at Hebrew. He would have studied classical Greek. He would have studeid rhetoric. This is a man who could have argued circles around the most brilliant minds of his time. But he realized that the gospel did not need to be embellished with the arguments of men. In (Rom. 1:16) he says: "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation."
• It is an undeniable truth that if Paul and Timothy didn’t need to embellish the gospel with worldly wisdom, then we don’t need to either. All we need is the gospel and a good dose of humility.
• The simple gospel, stated in a few basic propositions is all we need to see God miraculously bring people from a state of spiritual death to a state of spiritual life.

The simple gospel propositions

1. Human beings are separated from God by sin and deserve nothing from Him. We are hopelessly lost and in bondage to sin, death and hell and will spend eternity separated from Him unless He sovereignly intervenes on our behalf.
2. Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, parted with His visible glory for a time, in order to be fitted with a human body, for the express purpose of dying on the cross.
3. His death on the cross payed the penalty for the very sins that had separated His people from His Father in order to reconcile them to God.
4. He died a truely human death, was burried in a borrowed tomb and on the third day, raised back to life again proving that He is both Mesiah and Lord.
5. Those who have been given the ability to believe this with all their heart and display a changed life as a result of it, can be assured that they are partakers in His death and will someday be partakers of His resurrection also.

• In these five simple gospel propositions, the power of God is expressly manifest and mighty to save. They need not to be dressed up with fancy talk, or supplimented with human wisdom. These things only sully the purity of God's simple truth. Paul and Timothy knew this; and we must get ahold of this truth as well for the glory of God.

• (V. 6) Paul quotes God here as saying: "Light shall shine out of darkness." This is the very Creator of the universe who said in (Gen. 1:3) "Let there be light." And there was light.
  This same God who caused light to shine out of darkness, is the same God who shines the light of the gospel into our hearts and brings about our conversion. Paul says this same God is "the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

• This seems to be a complicated sentence at first but in reality it is quite simple. There is a verse in (Ps. 35) that helps us understand what is being said here. In (Ps. 35:9) David writes: "For with You is the fountain of life; and in Your light we see light."
  What is being said here is that God illumines our hearts and minds to comprehend the Light. What is this light? It is the knowledge of the glory of God, which is seen fully in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

• In the end, it is our job simply to humbly proclaim the gospel. It is God’s job to illumine the hearts and minds of individuals to comprehend His glory as it is displayed in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

• "we have this treasure in earthen vessels." – Finally, Paul wants us to know that God’s glory is also displayed in our weakness. The richness of the contents is amplified by the poverty of the vessel. The idea Paul wants to convey here would be well illustrated by placing the Hope Diamond in a burlap sack. That such feeble, earthen vessels such as you and I should be entrusted with the glorious gospel of Christ, the very "power of God unto salvation," is truley a mystery indeed.

• The treasure Paul is speaking of here is the gospel and the earthen vessels are our bodies. We carry a treasure that is infinitely more valuable, infinitely more glorious, infinitely more powerful than we could ever think of being in and of ourselves! Our weakness, in contrast to the glorious gospel of Christ, demonstrates all the more vividly the excellence of what we have been entrusted with.

Conclusion

• CHRIST’S WITNESSES MUST WALK WITH PERSEVERENCE AND INTEGRITY, IN ORDER THAT THE GLORY OF GOD MAY BE DISPLAYED.
• THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL DISPLAYS THE GLORY OF GOD EVEN WHEN SINFUL MAN CANNOT SEE IT.
• THE GLORY OF GOD IS DISPLAYED IN THE WEAKNESS AND HUMILITY OF THOSE WHO CARRY THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL

If you and I want to display the glory of God in our lives as Christ's witnesses, let us walk with perseverance and integrity of heart, proclaiming the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in weakness and humility, with full confidence that God will be glorified regardless of the outcome.