Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1663
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, June 4, 1882
“But if our Gospelis hid, itis hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.” 2 Corinthians 4:3,4.
I THINK in this case the Revised New Testament gives a better translation than does the Authorized Version and I will, therefore, read it, “But even if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled in them that are perishing, in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Gospel of the Glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them.” Paul had been speaking of Moses with the veil over his face and we lose the track of his thought if we use the word, “hid,” instead of, “veiled.” Our Gospel wears no veil, but exhibits all the Glory of its countenance to the sons of men. Oh that they may be able to steadfastly behold it and see in it their own salvation and the Glory of the Lord!
Observe at the outset the confidence with which Paul speaks. It is abundantly evident that he has no doubt whatever that the Gospel which he proclaims is assuredly true. No, that it is so manifestly true that if those who have heard it do not accept it, it must be because the god of this world has blinded their minds! The accent of conviction makes every word emphatic. He believes and is sure! And he is convinced that those who do not believe must be under the thralldom of the devil. This is not the ordinary style in which the Gospel is preached nowadays! We hear men courteously apologize for stating anything as absolute, for they are fearful of being thought narrow-minded and bigoted! We hear them prove what is clear as noonday and back up with arguments what God, Himself, has said—as if the sun needed candles to exhibit it, or as if God’s Word needed the support of human reasoning!
The Apostle did not take the defensive ground at all! He carried the war across the border and assailed the unbelievers. He came forth fresh from God with a Revelation and his every word seemed to challenge men with—“This is God’s Word. Believe it, for if you do not, you will incur sin and prove that you are lost and are under the influence of the devil.” When the Gospel was preached in that royal style, it prevailed mightily and annihilated opposition! Cavilers came, of course. “What will this babbler say?” was a common question, but the heralds of the Cross made short work of all cavilers, for they simply went on declaring the glorious Gospel! Their one word was, “This is from God! If you believe it, you shall be saved. If you reject it you shall be damned.”
They made no bones about it, but spoke like men who believed in their message and judged that it left unbelievers without excuse. They never altered their doctrine or softened the penalty of refusing it. Like fire among stubble, the Gospel consumed all before it when it was preached as God’s Revelation. It does not spread, today, with equal rapidity because many of its teachers have adopted what they fancy are wiser methods—they have become less certain and more indifferent and, therefore, they reason and argue where they should proclaim and assert! Some preachers rake up all the nonsense that any scientific or unscientific man likes to bring forward and spend half their time in trying to answer it! What can be the use of untying the knots which are tied by skeptics? They only tie more! It is not for my servant to dispute my message, but to deliver it correctly, as mine, and there leave it.
If we get back, again, to the old platform, and speak as from God, we shall not speak in vain, for He will surely honor His own Word. The preacher should either speak in God’s name or hold his tongue. My Brother, if the Lord has not sent you with a message, go to bed, or to school, or mind your farm—for what does it matter what you have to say on your own? If Heaven has given you a message, speak it out as he ought to speak who is called to be the mouth for God! If we are to make up our Gospel as we go along, out of our own heads, and compound our own theology as chemists make up mixtures of drugs, we have an endless task before us and failure stares us in the face! Alas for the weakness of human wit and the fallacy of mortal reasoning!
But if we have to deliver what God declares, we have a simple task and one which must lead to grand results, for the Lord has said, “My Word shall not return unto Me void.” Where did the Apostle learn to speak thus positively? He tells us in the first verse of the chapter, “Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not.” He had, himself, been once a persecutor and he had been convinced of his error by the appearance of the Lord Jesus to him. This was a great deed of mercy. He now knew that his sins were forgiven. He felt in his own heart that he was a regenerated man, changed, cleansed, newly created and this was, to him, overwhelming evidence that the Gospel was from God. To himself, at any rate, the Gospel was a Truth of God past argument, needing no other demonstration than its marvelous effect upon himself!