And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.Even if our Good News is veiled, it is veiled in those who are dying,But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in them that perish:
6 sermons cite this verse
… listen to what he does regarding the unbeliever. But even if our gospel is veiled, the good news of Jesus, how a man can be saved, how a woman, how a boy, a girl can be saved, is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. Think that through for a moment. There are people that you and I know, they're blind to the gospel truth. They're in the state, the actual condition of perishing. What does that mean? They're driving in a car, mindless of God, driving, and they're going right off a cliff spiritually, they're perishing. They are in the process of perishing. Are you with me? And if the gospel doesn't reach them, if they don't say yes to bringing their sins to Jesus and asking him to be their Lord and Savior, they will die in that belief. If they don't do that, they'll die in unbelief and they'll go off the cliff. This verse is saying if the gospel cannot be understood by people, it's because they're still perishing. They're in route to going off the cliff. Verse for, whose minds the God of this age has blinded. Wow. Notice little g. Satan here is called God, not a deity, but a ruler. Satan, he's a ruler. In fact, when Jesus returns in the second coming, he's going to take possession of the deed to the earth. Remember when Satan tempted Jesus and said, I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world if you'll just bow down and worship me. Guess …
The wicked, at the day of judgment, will see everything else in Christ, but his beauty and amiableness. There is no one quality or property of his person, that can be thought of, but what will be set before them in the strongest light at that day, but only such as consist in this. They will see him coming in the clouds of heaven, “in power, and great glory, in the glory of his Father.” They will have that view of his external glory, which is vastly beyond what we can imagine; and they will have the strongest and most convincing demonstrations of all his attributes and perfections. They will have a sense of his great majesty, that will be, as it were, infinitely affecting to them. They shall be made to know effectually, “that he is the Lord.” They shall see what he is, and what he does; his nature and works shall appear in the strongest view: but his infinite beauty and amiableness, which is all in all, and without which every other property is nothing, and worse than nothing, they will not see. Therefore in a sight or sense of this fundamentally consists the difference between the saving grace of God’s Spirit, and the experiences of the devils and damned souls. This is the foundation of every thing else that is distinguishing in true Christian experience. This is the foundation of the faith of God’s elect. This gives the mind a saving belief of the truth of divine things. It is a view of the excellency of the gospel, or sense of the divine beauty and amiableness of the scheme of doctrine there exhibited, that savingly convinces the mind that it is indeed divine or of God. This account of the matter is plainly implied; 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4. “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine into them.” And, 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.” It is very evident that a saving belief of the gospel, is here spoken of by the apostle as arising from a view of the divine glory or beauty of the things it exhibits. It is by this view that the soul of a true convert is enabled savingly to see the sufficiency of Christ for his salvation. He that has his eyes opened to behold the divine superlative beauty and loveliness of Jesus Christ, is convinced of his sufficiency to stand as a Mediator between him, a guilty hell-deserving wretch, and an infinitely holy God, in an exceeding different manner than ever he can be convinced by the arguments of authors or preachers, however excellent. …
Now these people are blind. How are they blind? Not blind physically, but they're blind spiritually. Who is the blinder? Satan, the God of this world. He has blinded the minds of them which believe not. Why? Why? Because he doesn't want the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, who is the image of God, to shine unto them. Then the apostle Paul says, For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. Well, Paul, if you preach Jesus, God's going to bless you, and the world's going to be good to you. You won't have any problems. Well, just hold on and see if that is true. He says, 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, that is the glory of God, in earthen vessels, in clay pots, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. …
And let such persons, for their awakening, consider the following things: 1. That they are blinded by the god of this world. Their blindness is from hell. This darkness which natural men are under, is from the prince of darkness. This the apostle says expressly of those who remain in unbelief and blindness under the gospel. “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid from them that are lost; in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not.” They belong to the kingdom of darkness. In that darkness which reigns in their souls, the devil reigns; and he holds his dominion there. 2. Consider how God in his word manifests his abhorrence and wrath towards those who remain so sottishly blind and ignorant, in the midst of light. How does God speak of them! “Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge?” “Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways. Unto whom I sware in my wrath, that they should not enter into my rest.” “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah, sinful nation!—they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger.” “It is a people of no understanding; therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will show them no favour.” “My people is foolish, they have not known me, they are sottish children, and they have no understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.” “Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in the house of Judah, saying, Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding, which have eyes and see not, which have ears and hear not. Fear ye not me, saith the Lord; will ye not tremble at my presence?” …
Now it should not surprise us when men of acute and powerful understandings more or less reject the Gospel, for this reason, that the Christian revelation addresses itself to our hearts, to our love of truth and goodness, our fear of sinning, and our desire to gain God's favour, and quickness, sagacity, depth of thought, strength of mind, power of comprehension, perception of the beautiful, power of language, and the like, though they are excellent gifts, are clearly quite of a different kind from these spiritual excellences--a man may have the one without having the other. This, then, is the plain reason why able, or again why learned men are so often defective Christians, because there is no necessary connexion between faith and ability, because faith is one thing and ability is another; because ability of mind is a gift, and faith is a grace. Who would ever argue that a man could, like Samson, conquer lions or throw down the gates of a city, because he was able, or accomplished, or experienced in the business of life? Who would ever argue that a man could see because he could hear, or run with the swift because he had "the tongue of the learned"? These gifts are different in kind. In like manner, powers of mind and religious principles and feelings are distinct gifts; and as all the highest spiritual excellence, humility, firmness, patience, would never enable a man to read an unknown tongue, or to enter into the depths of science, so all the most brilliant mental endowments, wit, or imagination, or penetration, or depth, will never of themselves make us wise in religion. And as we should fairly and justly deride the savage who wished to decide questions of science or literature by the sword, so may we justly look with amazement on the error of those who think that they can master the high mysteries of spiritual truth, and find their way to God, by what is commonly called reason, i. e. by the random and blind efforts of mere mental acuteness, and mere experience of the world. …
"But if our Gospel is hidden, it is hidden to those who aire lost." 2 Corinthians 4:3. In this verse and the following one we have a very brief yet very full description of what every minister of the Gospel ought to preach. In the first place, he is to preach the Gospel—not metaphysics, not politics, not mere morality, not simply doctrines as such. He is to preach the Gospel, which signifies good news, something new and something good—so good that nothing else can equal it—the glad tidings of mercy for the guilty, the blessed tidings of God coming down to man that man may go up to God, the welcome tidings of atonement made for human guilt! It is also new as well as good—it comes as a strange novelty to the attentive ear. Mythology never dreamed it, human wit could never have invented it, even angelic intellect could not have devised a scheme— "So just to God, so safe for man." The business of the Christian minister is to preach this Good News, to publish to the sinners the glad tidings that there is a Savior, to point the guilty to Christ and to be constantly saying to each individual sinner, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." I care not what may be the learning or eloquence of the minister, though he may speak with the tongue of men and angles, if he does not preach Christ and bid sinners trust in Him, he has mistaken his mission and missed the grand objective for which he was sent! …