2 Corinthians 4:6
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Good evening, church. It's great to be together one final time to reflect on God's Word with you tonight. Well, it may come as a shock to you because you know me to be such a brave person or because of my size, to learn that as a child, I was afraid of the dark. I remember desperately trying to fall asleep before my parents turned off the lights. This fear was not at all helped by an older brother, an older brother who became increasingly convinced the only remedy for this phobia was that if he would scare it out of me.
So Tristan routinely made a habit of hiding in my closet or under my bed, ready to jump out and grab me. One time, he even got an apple, and he sat in my closet for several minutes after the lights had been turned off, and then he began to chomp on it loudly so that I became convinced that there was a monster in there eating one of its previous victims. I was terrified. Well, even though my childhood fears are not that serious, a major theme in the Bible is darkness and light, and it's a deeply serious issue. It's what our verse deals with tonight. So turn with me, if you will, to 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 6. If you're using one of the Red Pew Bibles, you'll find it on page 965, or it's on the front of your bulletin, 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse
6. Let me read it. For God, who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Well, my main point for this devotional, if you are taking notes, is this. If you are a Christian, God has brought light to your dark heart. If you are a Christian, God has brought light to your dark heart. I'll break this main point down into two sections. First, the darkness of our hearts, and second, the light of Jesus. First, the darkness of our hearts. Well, you'll notice our verse starts with Paul quoting Genesis 1 that we read this morning and comparing it to our hearts. On one side, we see the darkness of creation before God said, let there be light.
And on the other, we have the darkness of our hearts. And Paul is saying that in the same way that the world was in darkness before God spoke, so our hearts are in utter darkness before or without the one who is the light of the world. And the Bible talks about that reality in many ways. So, we as a church will often pray for people who are lost in darkness, who are dead in sin, who are blind to see the gospel, who are deaf to hear the good news. What those things mean, what all of those things mean, is that we're separated from God, that we love our sin rather than loving God. And more than that, in John 8, Jesus says, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. So, not only are we in love with our sin, we're in bondage to sin. It controls us. Well, it's incredibly surprising then that in our verse,
God says, let light shine out of darkness. Darkness is defined as the absence of light. So, God is saying, let light come from the absence of light. There wasn't a light inside of you that God fanned into flame. No, it's the miraculous power of God who brought light to your heart. If you're a Christian, He has performed this miracle in you. He calls you a new creation.
But maybe you're here this evening, and you don't consider yourself a Christian. Or maybe you're still trying to figure out what it is you actually believe. Well, first, I want to say to you, welcome. I'm so glad that you're here. I'd be more than happy to talk to you after the service. I'll probably be standing by those back doors. Come talk to me. You should know that the Bible talks a lot about your heart still being in darkness, that you're still in bondage to sin, that it lacks the knowledge of the glory of God found in Jesus Christ.
You see, that light comes through the good news of Christ crucified, paying for your sin. There's much to say about that, but I want to encourage you, if that describes you, as strange as this may sound, I want to encourage you to pray. Pray that the Lord would allow you to see, that He would allow you to see what it is that your friend or co-worker or family member or parent has? What is the reason for their hope? That's a good prayer. It's a humble prayer.
God likes to answer that prayer. It's also an intellectually honest prayer. You see, you need to examine the claims of Jesus, of who He is, and His eyewitness testimony, and you need to examine those things for yourself. If you're a Christian here, My first application to you is to pray for your friends and coworkers and classmates and family members and children. Pray that God would bring light to dark hearts of people that you love.
Then speak with them boldly, confident in the Lord's changing power. I had many people pray that for me. I was born into a Christian home, but that doesn't make me a Christian. And when I was 10, my parents decided to move overseas to be missionaries. We moved to the Middle East, and it was right after 9-11.
I thought my parents had lost their minds. There was absolutely no logical reason that they needed to take me away from my friends, to take me away from my school, to take me away from McDonald's. And go to a place that everyone said was so dangerous.
Well, that formed in me anger. How could this good God demand so much? Anger for years that rotted away my bones. It wasn't that I didn't believe there was a God or didn't believe that Jesus existed just had no effect in my life. I became angry at my parents, but more directly, I was angry at the God that they served. I wanted nothing to do with Him.
At an end of myself, at the age of 17, I opened my Bible and I read 1 Corinthians 15, 22. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. Light pierced my darkened heart. My sin was leading me to hell, and Christ was offering me life.
You know, looking back, that anger I had, it was silly. Dubai is an incredible place. It's a safe place. We even moved into a house that had a McDonald's around the corner. More than that, church, so much more than that, God is good. I had no reason to be angry at him. He's the creator of all things. He's the one who acts in salvation, the one who shines light on us, revealing the error of our sin.
You know, Paul, the author of our verse, experienced this firsthand. You'll remember on the way to Damascus on the road as Paul was going to persecute the church, God shone a light on him, revealing his sin. It was an outward sign of an inward reality. I don't doubt that Paul had that in mind when he wrote our verse. And instead of consuming Paul or consuming me or consuming you.
God is kind. He is gracious. And He forgives sinners who are angry at Him. Put in the perspective of who He is, I know that my sin was foolish. That's the thing with sin. When sin comes into the light, and it will come into the light, it's always foolish.
But what about this? You're a member of this church, and God has shown His light in you. But because of the allure of sin, maybe over years, you've grown comfortable. with just a little bit of darkness again. There are things in your heart that you feel you just cannot give up.
So you're trying to cast a shadow over it, to make excuses for it, to desperately, craftily, sneakily, hide it from the Lord or from others? I want to say to you, get rid of it. You know it grows in the dark. It's not the fruit that God calls us to bear. It's fungus.
Fungus is the only thing that grows in the dark. And fungus will infect any fruit that you have. It will rot the good things of your life, and it will lead to ruin and despair. I don't know what that sin is in your life. Maybe it's anger, or alcoholism, or apathy, or envy, or pride, or pornography, but get rid of it.
come talk to me after the service, or talk to one of our elders, or talk to an older woman you know. Take serious steps to bring your sin to light. Christian, you serve the God who said, let there be light. Don't hold on to the darkness. Let the light shine in the darkness of your heart. My second point, the light of Jesus.
Well, before I became the director of Across Campus, our college ministry here, I worked for a company in the defense industry. We were making missiles and bombs. The company's name, Raytheon, if you break it down, means light from the gods, by which they mean a fiery judgment. I can't tell you the number of times that I was in meetings where this got brought up.
And when it did, I marveled that the light talked about in the Bible isn't one of judgment. It's not light resulting from a rain of destruction. No, instead look at how light is described in our verse. It's the light of knowledge, meaning it's something that you can know that gives perspective and awareness.
You don't have to stumble around in the dark because this light reveals which way you should go. It guides our paths. And what is it knowledge of? Knowledge of the glory of God. We can see how amazing God is, that He's the Creator, the King, the One who is sovereign over all. We can see His perfection, His holiness, His grace. We can know that He alone is worthy to be worshiped and praised and adored. And where is the glory of God seen? The end of our verse, in the face of Jesus Christ.
The glory of God is found in His incarnate Son, the person of Jesus. Notice the personal relationship that we can know Him. We see His face. You know, back in the Old Testament, Moses wanted to see God's glory. And all Moses was able to see was God's back. No more, Christian. You're not like Moses. We see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We have a restored relationship with the Creator of the universe because our sin has been paid for on the cross of Calvary.
So, what are we to do, church? Three quick things, three quick applications all begin with the letter R. Remember, root out, and rejoice. First, remember, daily look into the face of Jesus. Remind yourself that Christ took on the form of a servant and humbled Himself to death, even death on a cross. He did this to pay for your sin and my sin. Remember the gospel. Remember your relationship with Him by coming to church and praying and singing and reading your Bible.
You know, my wife Stephanie often reminds me what a forgetful person I am. We'll be having fights, and our fights often look like this. She'll come to me and say, do you remember telling me you would mow the lawn? My response, no, I don't think I said that. It doesn't sound like me. When would I have said that? Her response, this morning. Of course, she's right, and she forgives me often when I forget. But we're all forgetful people.
If you read the story of the Bible, you'll see how quickly we forget. Think of the Israelites in the wilderness complaining after the Lord had taken such care of them. We're no different. So set up routines in your life that make you remember the Lord. Pray on your way to work early in the morning. Take your lunch break between classes to read your Bible. Make it a priority to come back from vacation on Saturday so that you can attend church Sunday morning. Remember the Lord. Second application, root out. Take the torch of the gospel into the nooks and crannies of your heart. Let the knowledge of the glory of God shape everything that you do and say and think and feel. Find fungus and bring it to the light.
Light kills fungus, and God's light will kill sin. I recently finished reading the book The Mortification of Sin by John Owen with a group put together by David Richeson. It was a great joy to gather together early on Tuesday mornings and go about the work of killing and rooting out sin by applying gospel truths. Major takeaway from that time for me is that we should never just manage sin. We shouldn't just trim it back to a respectable level. No, we need to dig it out by the roots.
I suspect many of us try to keep sin at a respectable level. Don't do that. It grows in other areas. Fear God more than you fear man and bring your sin to light despite earthly consequences. Third, rejoice. The fact that we can know God, we can know what He requires of us is astounding. The fact that we can be called sons and daughters of the King despite our sin is amazing. The fact that God has worked in our hearts to make us a new creation should lead us to worship. So, church, rejoice. Rejoice that the glory of God is found in the face of Jesus
Christ. Let that truth fill you at all times and may you find delight in that no matter the circumstances of your life. Well I started this devotional by talking about my fear of darkness. Maybe you're here tonight and you need an older brother or sister who will jump out and grab you and remind you to flee from the dark. It's my prayer, church, that all of us be uncomfortable with darkness, that when the light comes, we wouldn't be like the people that Jesus describes in John 3 who love the darkness. Rather, we would be sons and daughters of light. 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. Amen? Amen. Let me pray for us.
God, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your work in us to bring light to the darkness of our hearts. God, we pray that You would do this work in the hearts of people we love and meet. We pray that our family and friends would come to know You. God, as a church, we pray that we would be uncomfortable with darkness, that we would seek to remember, to root out, and to rejoice. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.