For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.seeing it is God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.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.Seeing it is God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
9 sermons cite this verse
… the psalmist says in the 73rd Psalm. And the New Testament picks up the theme, 2 Corinthians 4, 6, 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. In other words, in His presence. And we just finished reading from the 21st chapter of the book of Revelation, and you would say something of the culmination of that passage, 22 verses 1 through 7, is that the people of God, in the presence of God, they will see His face. In other words, they will enjoy His presence. Psalm 16, in His presence is the fullness of what? This is all the language of experience. We're meant to know the truth about God, and we're meant to know the truth of the life that the people of God are meant to live, but we're also meant to know Him, to know what it is to be in His presence, to seek His face. …
… That's 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 6, two verses later, says the true God, listen to this, is shining light into the hearts of people so that they can see the glory of God in the face of Christ. So you've got the God of this world blinding minds in verse 4. God, true God, holy God. In verse 6, shining light into hearts. Verse 5, you know what it says? In the middle of this battle between the God of this world who's blinding minds and the true God who's shining light, verse 5 says, we preach Christ. That's the proclamation of the word. amidst this battle. Preach the one who died on a cross and conquered sin and conquered death and conquered the grave so that we don't have to fear death and we don't have to struggle with sin and we don't have to worry about what happens in the grave because we have the light of the knowledge of God and the glory of Christ living in us. …
… Paul says, you see, for God, 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. Y'all, what a verse. When God created the universe, how did he do it? Was the secret of God's success in creation that God started with some really amazing ingredients and some awesome potential? Was God the father like the original Papa John's who says the secret to our pizzas is that we only use the finest ingredients? Was God like better ingredients, better creation, Papa God, is that what Genesis one says? No, in creation, God starts with literally nothing and spoke all of this beauty out of nothing with just a word. In the same way, you gotta catch this, this is amazing. It's a powerful concept. Paul says when God brings salvation and spiritual life to somebody's heart, he doesn't start with the amazing talents of the witness. …
… God has shown in your heart to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Corinthians 4, 6 that's who you are when you open the Bible and because you're someone new, you can understand more of the Bible than you might think. not only can you understand more than you might think but the apostle goes even further he says the lord will give you understanding in everything i love the everythings of scripture in everything he says the lord will give you understanding with god's help nothing in this book is too hard for you now to say that we can understand everything in the bible is not to suggest that we will understand everything immediately or fully. We won't. And certainly not the first or second or even tenth time that we read a particular passage or chapter or book. Some questions will be answered slowly, so we don't expect to understand everything now. But I want you to expect to understand something now, and then a little more tomorrow, and then a little more the next day. …
… Christ is the glory of God. For God who said, let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us, this is 2 Corinthians 4, the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ. the epicenter of where we see the glory of God, the weight and the worth of God on display, most clearly is in the face of Jesus Christ on earth. You see here as well in Hebrews, the sun is the radiance of God's glory, the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. He, the sun, Jesus, is the radiance of God's kabod of his weight and his worth. After he had provided purification for sins, He, Jesus, sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven. Not just of God, but the majesty, the glorious weight and worth. He sat next to the majesty. How powerful is that? His miracles are to glorify God. He got up, this guy, and he took his mat. …
… This is a picture of God, of Christ in His church, and His glory shining from His church. He shines in us, 2 Corinthians 4, 6, He shines in us to give others the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. It's what Jesus said, let your light shine that men may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Or what the Apostle Paul said with regard to the Philippians, that you are lights in the world. So he reflects his glory through his church. And Jesus is saying, let that light shine. It's an amazing, amazing picture. We who serve the church, who live for the church and die for the church, who work tirelessly to see it be what it should be. For us this is great comfort, because these are the things that we would desire for the church, fellowship with Christ. help and strength in temptation and trial. purity and holiness, submission to the truth, strong leadership, and effective evangelistic testimony. And He in this church is doing all of that. The exalted Christ is present, empowering, interceding, purging, teaching, commanding, controlling, sovereignly evangelizing by shining the glory of His person through His church. This is a magnificent picture and one of immense encouragement. Do you see this? Let's look at John's reaction in verse 17. …
… Moses was told by God you can't look on my glory and live but Paul says the one who said let light shine out of darkness has made the light shine into our hearts by giving us the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ we're told in John chapter 1 the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the word became flesh and tabernacled among us is what John actually says in the Greek he pitched his tent. In John chapter 2, Jesus comes into the temple, and he looks around, and he sees all the people there, the money changers and the cattle sellers, and he gets out a whip, and he throws everybody out, and he says, my temple should be a holy place, a house of prayer. That's my father's house. The Jewish leaders come to him and say, by what right do you do this? They don't say he's wrong to demand holiness in the temple, does he? No, no. The temple's got to be a holy place. …
… to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ John the apostle said and the word became flesh and tabernacled among us and we beheld its glory glory is of the only begotten of the father what the new testament says and here we do I'll just say it now so we can conclude and get back to it next week, is that the Garden of God, the original place where God dwelt with us, God recreated his house when he built the tabernacle and the temple. He dwelt in there, and he let people live near the tabernacle and near the temple, but nobody lived in it. The priests weren't allowed in there. No one was allowed to live in it. His Shekinah glory dwelt in there. And you know why nobody could get in it? Because of the sword. when God sent the people out, Adam and Eve out of the garden, put the sword there and the cherubim. …
… 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. We are like a clay pot. And the only thing that makes us worthwhile or anything good about me, you, or any other person on the face of this earth is Jesus Christ, the treasure that is in the clay pot. And then Paul describes the difficulty that he got in. He said, we're troubled on every side, but not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. We are persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. What he's saying is, I've been knocked down, but I haven't been knocked out. …