Turn with me please to the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. I have benefited greatly from the messages today. There were convictions set forth and arguments set forth from scripture that helped me in my own understanding of preaching from all three men, the different subjects that were dealt with, the exposition that was done in the midst of these has been very convincing and has been a source of great blessing and instruction for me and I appreciate what you have done. And so tonight I want us to look, as we finish this conference, at the convictions that the Apostle Paul has about preaching. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 1 through 6. Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart but we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. for God, who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Let's pray together. God and Father of our Lord Jesus, we pray that tonight we would indeed see your glory in the face of Christ, that we would sense the power of the Gospel, that you yourself, by your Spirit, would speak to our consciences of the wonder of Christ and the reality of the forgiveness of sins, and that we would know that it is only by your truth that these things come. Protect us from seeking to develop methods that are outside of the integrity and clarity of your Word. Teach us not to be manipulative, but nevertheless to be earnest and sincere, to pursue with all godly zeal, in truth, those who do not know the gospel. and those who do know the gospel and yet always until the day they die are in need of greater holiness and greater obedience. And we pray that your word may accomplish that in our lives tonight. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Now there are six points I want to make out of this message tonight and within each of these heads of the sermon, there is a C. If you like these devices to remember the way the thing goes, there's a C in it. The first one is the confidence with which we preach, in verse 1. The second one is the character of our ministry, in verse 2. The third one is the conflict against our ministry, verses 3 and 4. The fourth one is the content of our ministry, verse 5. And then the fifth one is the sensible certainty of our ministry, verse 6. As someone has reminded, one of the strengths of expository preaching is that if you're going straight through a book, you don't have to dip down into the middle of it and then begin to explain the context because you've already preached through the context. But, although I asked Dean for this, he did not allow me enough sermons to just preach all the way through 2 Corinthians, so you would already have the context. So, I'm going to have to set the context for this, for this first verse, in order that we'll understand the intensity of Paul's argument. When he says, therefore, of course, this is one of those connective phrases that we've learned that when we are doing expository preaching, we need to look at that and ask the question, what is therefore, therefore? So therefore reminds us of what Paul has said above. We're talking here about the confidence that we can have in ministry. Paul has said that since we have such a hope, we are very bold. He's talking about the hope that he has because of the great power that there is in the gospel, because of the exceeding glory of the gospel. If the law came with great power and great glory so that people could not look at the face of Moses when he came down from receiving the law, and if Moses himself could not even look at the glory of God that was being demonstrated when he was there receiving this law, if that was glorious, then how much more is the fulfillment of that law in the person of Christ, how much more glorious is the fulfillment of it in the gospel And so he says, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. That's the hope he has, the great glory that there is in the gospel, the converting power that there is in it. And then he references the idea that the face of people is veiled to this glory, their minds are veiled to this glory because they do not properly see Christ. They have not learned to see Christ in that revelation that has gone before. So their minds need to be open to see Christ. When they see Christ, then they will understand even the glory of that revelation that has gone and the far surpassing glory that we have in the gospel. And this is the glory that he says that will change us. He says we're being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. There is such a wedding between the Spirit of God and the preaching of Scripture. between the Spirit of God and His taking the things of Christ and showing them to us, that He can actually tell us that Christ Himself is teaching us through the Spirit when our hearts and our minds are unveiled to see the power of this Gospel. This comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. Therefore, having this ministry, what a ministry, We need to let ourselves just revel in that now and then. We have this ministry. This that he's just described is the ministry to which we've been called. Having this ministry, how? By the mercy of God. None of us deserves this ministry. None of us deserves to be called. None of us has intrinsic talent for it. None of us has any spiritual power for it. All the power for it is in the content of the ministry itself and in God's pledge to bless it to the glory of Christ by the Spirit of God. That's the ministry we have. We have it by the mercy of God. And he says, we do not lose heart. Now, this is a powerful statement if we understand again and look at the context in which the Apostle Paul is saying this. Right after this, he begins to describe the kinds of things that as an apostle in the preaching of this ministry, he goes through. In verse 7, he says, we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. God is intent on the reality that when anyone believes the Gospel, they will believe it because of the power that is in the Gospel, because of the glory that is in the Gospel, not because of the subtlety or of the convincing power or of anything about the preacher. He's going to show that we are jars of clay so that the surpassing glory will be in this message and in the person that the message speaks about. And so he describes what has happened to him. He's afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies and so forth. That doesn't seem like the kind of thing that someone would Look at this and say, we do not lose heart. Why, if you were in any other profession, if you were doing anything else and it brought you into that kind of situation, wouldn't you lose heart? Wouldn't that be... Man, you can take this job. I don't want it. I don't have to go through all of this. I can find something else to do. But God is determined that His ministers are going to go through that and particularly, as Paul said, the apostles, the most important gift that Christ gave to the church in His ascension, That gift that has given us the revelation of the entire New Testament that has unfolded for us the glory of Christ, that gift, Paul said, God is determined to make us the scum of the earth. It's amazing. that the most wonderful gift that is ever given to humankind, God determined that in order that the glory might be in the message, that they would appear to all of those around them to be the very scum of the earth because of what they were proclaiming. Paul preaches before Agrippa and Felix. Felix says, ah, you're out of your mind, Paul, you're crazy. And as he preaches at the Areopagus, the Athenians say, man, these are strange gods you're speaking to us. And especially when he said the resurrection from the dead, that was absurd. Paul later in this very letter, in chapter 12, he begins to talk about all the things that commend him as an apostle. And what does he talk about, the things that commend him as an apostle? He says, to keep me from being too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations. The thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger from Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. And he pled with the Lord that it might be removed. And he says, my grace is sufficient for you. And then he says, for the sake of Christ then, I am content. I'm content. I found a place of satisfaction and joy and security and even happiness. I'm content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I'm weak, then I'm strong. Therefore, having this ministry, by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. This shows us that it is not because of anything about ourselves. It is not because we find some degree of self-importance in what we do or it is admired by the world. It is we're willing to give everything up because of the superiority of the content and the character of the ministry we've been given. It transcends us. It is better than us. We are willing to die for it because it is life itself. It is glory itself. It is God Himself revealing Himself and revealing His redemptive work to us. That is worth giving oneself to. And so that's the reason he can say that I am perplexed but not driven to despair. That's the ministry that we have. That is the confidence that we have that the content and the calling we have is something that is much more important than we could ever be in and of ourselves. The second thing that I want us to see is the character of our ministry. He says, here we have renounced disgraceful and underhanded ways. we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's Word. But by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God." Now, notice in this verse, he says a negative, first of all, what he does not do, and then he states a positive, as to what is the compelling nature of the ministry that he has been given. Now, this ministry that he said he has by the mercy of God is something that draws him to this conclusion. I'm not going to use anything at all that would detract from the intrinsic power of the ministry. So he says, we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's Word. Now Paul knew that there were several ways in which people could do this. He had his fill of those who simply rejected the truths of the Revelation and sought to substitute another gospel. He speaks about those in Galatians who sought to preach another gospel, which he says is not another gospel. And he says, let them be anathema. He talks about super apostles, even in the Corinthian correspondence, those who were trying to preach another Jesus. Those also were on their way to perdition because they showed that they really did not believe the worthiness of this particular message. He talks about those who denied the resurrection, who denied vital truths of this. But he also knew that there were some people who were sincere, but they simply did not have the right understanding and they sought to build upon the foundation things that would be judged eventually as wood and hay and stubble. He said, Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. And he says, I, as a master builder, laid the foundation of Christ, and others have built thereon. Now their work is going to be judged, and some of it will be gold and jewel and precious stones, and some of it will be wood and hay and stubble, and the day of judgment will reveal it. It will be fried by fire, and that which is not consistent with the foundation will be burned up. Those who have done that will be saved, but though as by fire. It simply means they themselves will be saved, but the rewards that they would have had for faithful ministry will not be there. All of those things will be passed away. That's one of the things that he looks at as being unworthy of the gospel. So there is heresy. There is an unworthy handling of the truth, perhaps because they have not given themselves to it. This is the reason Paul gives so many admonitions in 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, for them to give themselves to the Word, to work hard at this, to show themselves a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth, to show themselves approved to those who hear them. It takes work. It takes work to know the Word and to embrace the Word and to learn to communicate the Word. And there may be some genuine souls, some people who really love the Lord, but they just don't have the zeal or the capacity or they don't have the pure gravity of soul to give themselves consistently to learning and so sometimes they're giving fluff. Sometimes they begin to realize perhaps my ministry is not quite as effective as it could be and if I would just do this thing or this thing, then I would be able to draw more people in. We all know persons like that. Sometimes we ourselves have been tempted to use methods that might be a little bit more spectacular, that might open people's eyes and to think that church is really a lot more fun than they had anticipated that it might be. Well, there are many a number of things that Paul could be talking about, but we all sense that there are ways in which the gospel can be handled that is not consistent with the glory of its content. And Paul says that with very clear thinking, volitionally, with a clear determination, by his understanding of what the Gospel is and what it demands, he says, we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse, notice the intensity of his language, we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's Word. There's the issue. It shows a lack of real confidence in God's Word when you begin to resort to other methods. We do not tamper with God's Word. Now, we may look and say, well, that will never happen to us. But it will, there will be ways in which we do the same thing. The intensity of Paul's language as such is that we need to realize that we all could be susceptible to this and that we need consistently to work at making sure that our message is right in harmony with the Word of God, that we are doing what the truth of God is. So we have to determine, we renounce disgraceful ways, we refuse to practice cunning. So that's the negative part of what we're talking about, the character of our ministry. The positive part here is it says, but by the open statement of the truth. The open statement of the truth. As you go through a text and you come to those hard ones, you don't skip over those hard ones, do you? You just go right through them and you realize this is just as true as all the nice passages that make people feel good. all the ones about the condescending and sacrificial love of God and His care for us and that He who began the good work in us will bring it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus and the Lord knows those who are His. but also those passages that talk about that if you hold to the faith, and if we hold the confidence that we had at first, we are God's house, or we have come to trust in Him if we hold fast the boldness that we initially had. Those passages that make us perplexed, those passages that serve as deep warnings about the true nature of saving faith, those passages that talk about the necessity and the reality of perseverance, those are passages also that need an open statement of the truth. Now obviously they need to be put within the context of the entire revelation of God so that we have a deep understanding of exactly how the Spirit of God works to preserve us and to cause us to persevere in those times. But nevertheless, they are genuine and sincere warnings about the subtlety of our hearts and the deceitfulness of our hearts and how easy it is for people to think that they have believed on certain basis, but they have never really come to know Christ. This kind of open statement of the truth is a part of our ministry. It's a part of what Paul determined that he would be. In the second part of this positive statement, the open statement of the truth, he says, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. Now, it seems that the false apostles were talking about how Paul was so earnest in making them love him above everyone that he was constantly trying to commend himself. Paul is just arrogant. Paul is just haughty. Paul has an ego problem. He wants you all to bow to what he says, you know. He thinks that everything he says is gospel truth or something. You know, you need to be a little flexible. You need to listen. You need to balance these things out. You need to be able to hear what other people say and make your judgments about these things. He's constantly commending himself. Well, that's the way they understood it. And it seems that some of the Corinthians would say, you know, he does talk kind of like that. He talks kind of like what everything he says is necessary to be believed. In fact, to the Galatians, he even condemned himself if he came back and said something different from what he said the first time. If I or an angel from heaven speak to you a gospel other than the one I spoke to you, let him be anathema. So, yeah, it does seem that Paul, if you take it in that way, is commending himself. But he's not commending himself. We know that he's doing this even under the threat of people thinking he's arrogant or that he's self-centered or that he has no flexibility. And he's doing it under the threat of imprisonment and under the threat of being ousted from his fellow Israelites. And so what is he appealing to? when he says we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. He does want to commend himself because his ministry as an apostle depended upon their actually believing him and what he said. If they departed from what he said and went after the super apostles, they would put themselves in the position of believing a false gospel. So he had to do this, he had to commend himself in some way. So how does he commend himself? We commend ourselves to everyone's conscience. Now why does he mention conscience? Because the gospel has a powerful effect upon the conscience. Paul said that the goal of his ministry was genuine faith and love and a pure conscience. The book of Hebrews, chapter 9, tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ has cleansed our conscience. He offered Himself unblemished to God by the Spirit. In offering Himself that way, He cleansed our conscience. Now a person who comes to understand that Christ has died for sinners and they're forgiven because of the death of Christ and not because of anything in them, and that they're accepted before God because of the righteousness of Christ imputed to them, not because of their good works, and they come to see that Christ alone is worthy and that they have received Him and that they are accepted, not in themselves, but they are accepted in the Beloved. If a person has come to see that and see the radical nature of the forgiveness of sins and imputation of righteousness and the standing we have before God because of the gospel, then the qualms of conscience that beat upon us at times can easily be assuaged by looking to Christ. It is enough that Jesus died and that He died for me. And so, Paul is saying, I'm commending myself to everyone's conscience. What happened to your conscience when you heard this gospel? Which gospel is it that cleanses your conscience? Which gospel is it that allows you to stand before God with a sense of forgiveness? What kind of conscience is it that allows you to say, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness? This gospel that depends upon your works, that depends upon the ceremonial law somehow, this gospel that gives you a Christ less than the Christ that I have preached to you, which one of these is the one that cleanses your conscience? I'm not commending myself to you in any other way than commending myself to everyone's conscience. in the sight of God. This has to do with the results of the gospel message that he preaches, what it actually means for sinners to embrace this gospel. And so he does away with all these underhanded ways. He does away with cunning, with tampering with God's Word. He makes an open statement of the truth and in doing that he commends himself to everyone's conscience. That's what I'm after. I'm after your salvation. I'm after your sense of security before God because that gives glory to Him. I'm commending myself and my message to your conscience in the sight of God. So that is the character of his ministry, the character of his message. Now we see also in this text a thing that could discourage us if we did not see it in the right way, but Paul is setting it forth as a point of encouragement. He says, even if our gospel is veiled, and he's talked about the veiling in general that has come to Israel as a result, of their not seeing how Christ is a fulfillment of all of those Old Testament prophecies and types and offices. Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing, those who are presently in the perishing condition, those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. Now, I'm sure that when you read a text like that, many of you, like I would, if you were preaching this passage and you came to that, I would begin thinking, man, here's what I'd say about that and here's what I'd say about that. It's so rich. Just notice how he piles up all of these phrases to keep them from seeing what? The light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. What a Christology. What a powerful statement about the gospel. This is a statement as to how blind they are. They don't almost see, and if they could just almost see, the intensity of the vision here would penetrate that near blindness. He's emphasizing this in order to point out positively the glory of Christ, but also to point out negatively the nature of their blindness. What is it they can't see? They can't see light. They can't see the light that is of the spiritual character of the gospel, the good news. This gospel is about the glory of Christ, God and man in one person, substituting himself for sinners, dying for them, being under the power of death, being raised from the dead, honored by the Father, The Father calling him now as a Redeemer King in his humanity as well as his deity to be seated at his right hand to become the mediator for sinners, to intercede for them and to come again to make all of his enemies a footstool for his feet. This is the glory of Christ and Christ himself is the one through whom we know all the character of God. He is the image of God. This is the reason Paul emphasizes it was through Him that everything was created. It's through Him that all things hold together. It's through Him that He has redeemed the world. It is through Him that we have the true knowledge of God. It is through Him that God will establish His rule and His reign in the hearts of the redeemed. It is through Him that He will establish His rule and His reign in the new heavens and the new earth. He is the image of God and that's what they can't see. It's the light of these things they can't see. So Paul is saying, you don't have any words to say that are better than the words of the Scripture. You don't have any better vision to give than is better than the vision we have in the Gospel. You don't have any tricks, you don't have any word manipulation, you don't have any histrionics that you can engage in that will affect them and make them come to see this because there's absolutely nothing that is more powerful and wonderful and bright and glorious than this truth that you preach. This is what you preach. Don't try to do anything beyond this or above this. This is what they can't see. If you manipulate it and make them see something they can't see, then it won't be seeing the right thing. It will not be believing the gospel. This is what they can't see. And so, why is this happening? Well, it's because the God of this world who holds them in his hands, as John says in 1 John 5, we know the whole world lies in the arms of the wicked one. As Paul says in Ephesians 2, that we follow the course of this world, the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the children of disobedience. This is what Paul talked about in the book of 2 Thessalonians when he talked about even at the end of the age when the wicked one comes, the lawless one comes. He says, therefore God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Well, why is it that they have pleasure in unrighteousness? It's the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, with all wicked deception for those who are what? Those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. And here Paul is saying these people are perishing. These people are away from the life of God. These people are pursuing their own course. These people are involved in a life of transgression. It is a continued pilgrimage and greater and greater transgression. And though the evidence of God is all around them and though the preaching of the gospel has come to them, though it is something that is so glorious and wonderful in itself, the God of this world has blinded their minds. They voluntarily are submissive to him. They refuse to love the truth. They play into his hands. And the only thing that will ever rescue them is for somehow this truth to break forth. You cannot depart from this message because you will always bring them into something less and something that is not the gospel. So if our gospel is veiled, if you have people that you've preached to over and over and over and they cannot see it, you can't change your message, you can't change your technique of proclamation of the truth. commending yourselves to their conscience with the reality of forgiveness of sins and the need for forgiveness of sins and that they're going to stand before God guilty one day. You continue to commend yourself in the ministry you give to them by appealing to the conscience. Those who are saved will recognize the truthfulness of it and will glory in it and will grow in grace in it. Those who are unsaved will have no excuse because you have appealed to them that you will stand before God and your mouth will be stopped And you will be held guilty before God because you have not received this gospel and you yet remain therefore in your sins. So if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, who reside in that native condition. of internal corruption, condemnation, submission to the God of this world, captured by the world, the flesh, and the devil, pursuing their own course of transgressions. So, what is the answer? Well, the answer is, again, he reiterates the content of his ministry. We've looked at the character of his ministry and in that he says he refuses to tamper with God's Word. He says he gives an open statement of the truth. Now he reiterates that and he gives a little bit more details about what he means when he's talking about God's Word and when he's talking about this open statement of the truth. He says, the content of my ministry is this. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord. Now, again, that's a summary statement, is it? This is why we have to, while we're exegetical preachers, we have to be doctrinal preachers. We have to explain what it means that Jesus Christ is Lord. This is a confession that everyone will make at the end, some unto salvation and some by bending the knee to the one that they have rejected before they're cast into perdition forever. But every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. They will see him as Lord. They will recognize that there is none greater than he. There's none more powerful than he. There's none more worthy than he. That he is the only one through whom they could come to know God. They will recognize that. And he says, that's what I preach now. I preach Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus, that man of Nazareth, that man that was so despised, that man that was rejected. Christ, the one who was anointed by God himself as prophet, priest and king. The one who was the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. The one who will be anointed as the final king. Jesus the Christ. And Jesus the Christ is Lord. He is the one who is God in the flesh. It is not a charade for Him to be Lord. It is not something that is an elevation above what He actually is in Himself for Him to be proclaimed as Lord, because intrinsically that is what He is. He is Yahweh. He is Lord. And that's what I proclaim. So all that Jesus Christ is Lord, all that that means is what I proclaim. I do not proclaim myself, even though I claim to be an apostle, that I say my message is true. That does not mean I'm proclaiming myself. Well, I'm nothing. God's made sure that everyone knows that. We have this message in jars of clay. I'm not proclaiming myself, but I'm proclaiming authoritatively what the truth is that is good for your souls. Jesus Christ as Lord. So the content of my ministry must be Christ. It must be Christ in His eternity. It must be Christ in His condescension, in His birth. It must be Christ in His perfect life, in His righteousness. It must be Christ in His atoning death, bearing our sins in His own body. It must be Christ as He's resurrected from the dead. It must be Christ in His ascension. It must be Christ in His ruling even now. It must be Christ as the only one who can save us, the one who even now intercedes for those who trust Him and will enter the heart and save those who believe in Him. This is the Christ that we preach. This is the message. We proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. So again, he says, That's the reason you're being led astray in misunderstanding what my intent is. It's not for my sake, it's for Jesus' sake. So that's the content of the ministry. Now the last thing that I want us to see here, a very important point, is the sensible certainty of our ministry. For God who said, that light shine out of darkness has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. This is the very thing that the unbelievers, the perishing, cannot see. So how is it they come to see it? Well, they come to see it in the way of virtually a new creation, the power of creation. That's the analogy he uses. God who said, let light shine out of darkness. when there was nothing, when there was no light, darkness was on the face of the deep. God said, let there be light. And what? And there was light. This is a mystery. I mean, light is one of the most wonderful things in the world. Light is one of those things that just is So many things you can do with it. We're talking about all these devices we have now. It's all light. It's all based on the physics of light somehow, I don't know. And it's almost infinite, the kinds of things you can do with light. This is why Jesus is the light of the world. In Him was life and the life was the light of men. The light shines in darkness and the darkness is not apprehended or is not comprehended. The darkness cannot hold it down. And God said, let there be light. Light had independent existence. It just existed. In all of its physical properties, it existed. And then God placed, God created bodies to which it could be attached. Some of the bodies would have all the properties within themselves of light, so light would come from them. Some bodies merely reflect the light, but the light was already present. It's like the light made the bodies. The light became concentrated in those things that now we say are light-giving. Well, what it was, was these things were made by light. Light gave them existence by the power of God. And so this God who made light, this God who said, let light shine out of darkness, this marvelous thing He has done, He has shone in our hearts. Now I think that Paul is talking here, this is a personal testimony. He's saying, I know what those people who are perishing were like. I know how resistant you can be. I know how hard-hearted one can be. I know how blind a person can be. I know how much of Scripture you can know and misunderstand it and hate the meaning that some people are putting on it. I know that. I was one of them. But, I also know that you just keep preaching the truth because there is no power like the power of truth. There is no power like that which God Himself has revealed because it is through that that He will shine in our hearts. It is through that that He will open, pull away our blindness. It is through that that He will defeat Satan's grasp upon us. The God who said, let light shine out of darkness has shone in our hearts. It happened to me. I saw Christ not only physically but in my heart when it pleased God who separated from my mother's womb to call me by His grace and reveal His Son to me. I immediately conferred not with flesh and blood. The light had shone in His heart. And then in the process of sorting through all that, he came to see this was the knowledge of the glory of God and it was only in the face of Jesus Christ, the one that he had been opposing. Who are you, Lord? I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting. He saw the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And this is a qualification for ministry. Notice I've called it a sensible certainty of our ministry. Spurgeon said, as he's talking about a call to ministry, the very first qualification of a call to ministry is to be a converted person. He said it has to be sheer terror and drudgery and slavery. for a man to put on a ministerial garb and to stand behind a pulpit and to try to preach things from a prayer book or a confession to which he is an utter stranger. There is nothing more abysmal than to speak of things like that that you have no knowledge of. Jonathan Edwards has a concept that he uses frequently and it's called sensibility. If you read many of his sermons, you'll realize how many times he talks about people are not sensible of this. They're not sensible of the glory of God. They're not sensible of the danger they're in. They're not sensible of the truth of Scripture. They're not sensible of the sovereignty of God. They're not sensible of the wrath of God in hell. Well, what does he mean by sensible? Sensibility for Edwards, and I think biblically, is the idea that something has impressed itself upon your mind and upon your conscience with such a power that it has an immutable certainty to it as if it were planted in your experience by your very senses. If you go to a hot stove and the gas is on on one of the Burners, and a person places their hands on that and the gas is burning. And if you didn't know what hot was before or what burn was before, you will forevermore know what that is. You can explain it to someone. If you put your hands on that, it's going to burn. It's going to burn. What does that mean? Well, that means it's going to be hot. What's hot? Well, it's going to be very painful. It's a kind of pain that you can't describe. It's a worse pain than cutting yourself. It's a pain that stays there. It's a pain that sort of goes through you. Man, I don't get it. Well, okay, go put your hands on those gas burners and then you'll know. It's sensible. What does honey taste like? Boy, honey, it's got a sweet flavor. It can have different ambiance depending on where the bee's got it, whether it's from clover or wherever, from apple blossoms or pear blossoms or something like that. And there's a sweetness and there's this subtlety to it. It's just amazing. Okay, that satisfies me. That's a great description of honey. Well, let me give you some honey. So you give a person some honey and they taste the honey and they say, oh, that's honey. It's sensible. It becomes something that is a part of their knowledge. It's an immutable knowledge they have now because they have experienced it with their senses. Well, this is what Edwards is saying and I think this is what the New Testament says when we say we taste and see that the Lord is good. Those who have ears to hear, let them hear. Those who have eyes to see, let them see. The God who said that light shined out of darkness has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. We've seen that light. You can read the proposition of Scripture. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And you can know that it is a proposition of Scripture that all men are sinners. But when the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin and shows you as a violator of the law, as a rejecter of the gospel, as someone worthy of condemnation before God, and that enters into your conscience, it becomes sensible. The statement, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, will never ever be the same to you. It will not be a mere proposition. It will be something that is sensible. It will be something that you know in your soul is true. When the Scripture tells us that he that believeth shall be saved, he that believeth not is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And we can know that as a proposition, saved, condemned. And it will stay a mere proposition until, by the Spirit of God, we are enlightened to see our sin, enlightened to see the Savior. And we know that all that believe in Jesus will be saved, and we see the glory of Christ, and we see the wonder of His resurrection, and we see how satisfied God is with Him. When the glory of Christ shines in our heart, it becomes sensible. We can never be convinced that Jesus Christ is not the Savior of sinners. We can defend it from the Bible, we can defend the inspiration of the Bible, but the thing that carries us through is the fact that God has shown in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It is a sensible certainty. And so when you preach, you're preaching out of the propositions of Scripture. You're preaching the truth. You do not practice cunning. You do not use underhanded ways. You commend yourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. You do not proclaim yourself. You proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord. But you do that with the deep-seated, sensible understanding, the deep-seated convincing that has come from the Spirit of God Himself that all of these things are true. They are true. You could never forsake them. You can never give up trying to help people to understand this. You continue to preach it to them. You continue. not to tamper with God's Word, but give an open statement of the truth, because these things are certain." Well, so Paul begins this text saying, therefore having this ministry, by the mercy of God we do not lose heart. And I pray that God will, Jerry has talked about the wanting to make sure he can stay running right to the end, seeing so many people fall away. I think I've got 12 years on you, Jerry. But I feel the same way. Every day I want to be able to say, having this ministry, I do not lose heart. I never want to think that, okay, I've done this long enough, now it's time to do something else. There's nothing else worth doing. And those who have this burned into their souls by the Spirit of God will recognize that this is their life. We have this ministry and we will have it not as long as we're hired, but as long as we're alive. And we pray that God may give us grace to pursue it with that sort of certainty and that sort of zeal and that sort of joy. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the great way in which you continue to encourage us while at the same time warning us of the great cost that there is in giving our lives to something that the world hates and that the devil opposes, and yet something that nevertheless is so certain that it has captured our souls and we know that there are thousands and millions in the same condition as we and there are yet others that you will bring in because you are not slack concerning your promise and that the patience of our God is salvation. So we pray that that may encourage us. I pray for each one of these men who are preaching. I pray for each one of these women who are wives of those who are preaching. I pray, Lord, that you will encourage them that if they're in small places and discouraging places, they may not look for joy in the results around them, but that they may look for joy in the integrity and the glory of the message that you have given them by your mercy. May this be true of all of us, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.