Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2077
Delivered on Lord’s Day Morning, March 31, 1889
“The light of the glorious Gospel of Christ.” 2 Corinthians 4:4
SHINING in the center of the verse, like a pearl in its setting, you find these words. Literally and accurately translated, they run thus—“The light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ.” This is the form given to my text in the Revised Version and I shall follow it because, word for word, it follows the original.
Paul was a man of one idea. The Gospel of Christ had saturated his soul as the dew saturated Gideon’s fleece. He could think of nothing else and speak of nothing else but the glory of Christ Crucified. Important events in politics transpired in the Apostle’s day but I cannot remember an allusion to them. Great social problems were to be solved, but his one and only solution was the preaching of that great Savior who is to cleanse the Augean stables of the world. For Paul there was but one thing worth living for and that one thing was worth dying for. He did not count even his life dear unto him that he might win Christ and be found in Him.
Therefore his spirits rose or sank according to the prosperity or decline of the kingdom of Christ. When he writes an Epistle his mood varies according to the spiritual condition of the people to whom he writes. If their faith grows exceedingly and if from them sounds forth the Word of God, then he is jubilant in his tone. But if they are declining in Divine Grace Divine Grace, if there are divisions among them, if false doctrine is ravaging them like a wolf in the sheepfold— then he is solemn in spirit and he writes with a heavy hand. In this case Paul laments the condition of those who could not see what was so plain to himself—namely, the Gospel of the glory of Christ.
He saw most clearly the glory of his Lord and that precious Gospel which is built up thereon and he marveled that others could not see it also. Considering their case with care he sorrowfully perceived that they must first have shut their eyes by willful unbelief. Therefore he felt Satan had exercised his evil power and had utterly blinded them. The blaze of the Gospel is so bright, that even with their eyes averted, some measure of light must have entered their minds—unless some especial evil power had operated to hold them in darkness. The devil himself, Paul perceived, must have blinded them, but even Satan found it a great task to shut out the glorious light. To accomplish it he had to amass all his power as “the god of this world.”
It required a great amount of cunning to close the perceptive faculties of men against the clear and forcible light of the Truth of the Gospel. The light of the glorious Gospel, like that of the morning dawn, would have been seen even by dim eyes had not the infernal prince blindfolded the thoughts of men and made their minds as dark as his own. The light of the Gospel is intense, and by a faithful ministry it is flashed in the very faces of men. Therefore, in fear of losing his subjects, the Prince of Darkness hastens to blind their eyes. Jesus comes to give sight, but Satan comes to destroy it. They each know the value of those eyes by which men look and live. The battle rages at the mental Eye Gate. The conflict between the two champions is raised upon the question—shall men behold the light—or shall they abide in darkness?
I wonder whether there are any here at this time who have long been willing unbelievers and have at last come to be quite unable to perceive any glory in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. When they hear it faithfully preached they flippantly criticize the style of the speaker. But the matter of which he speaks appears to them to be of small consequence. They pass by the Cross itself and the sorrow of the Lord is nothing to them. These may be very intelligent men and women in other matters and yet have no perception of the spiritual Truth of God. They can perceive a thousand beauties in nature but none in Divine Grace. They have drunk of the Castilian fountain but have never sipped of “the waters of Shiloh that go
softly.”
They can discuss at large upon the sublime and beautiful. But they see neither beauty nor sublimity in Him who is all that is lovely and all that is heavenly. I pray that while I am speaking of the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ that
light may penetrate their minds. May God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness speak again the almighty fiat, saying, “Let there be light.” And there shall be light. May the miracle of the old creation be repeated in the new creation to the praise of the glory of Divine Grace.
First, this morning I shall ask you to think upon Paul’s words and consider his name for the Gospel—it is “the Gospel of the glory of Christ.” Secondly, let us consider the light which streams from that Gospel of the glory of Christ. When we have thought of these two things, let us consider what to do with this light, this marvelous light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ.