Pastor’s Pen

II Corinthians 4:3-4

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 which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

What I mean by openness is that I’m not going to hide this glorious truth of the gospel. If we are going to hide the gospel, it is the lost who will suffer from this. The lost need Christians to be open about their salvation. So many are out and open today about their thoughts, desires, and sinful lusts. I recently read about a child of a well known celebrity couple who wanted to be a girl and no longer a boy. The family is being praised for their openness.

The world is open and accepting gender transformations and accepting all sorts of sexual perversion. The church has long housed divorced and remarried preachers and leaders, which is against the Bible. No preaching is done to curtail the spread of sensuality and sin. If there is any time for Christians to be open it is now.

So many are being open about sins and flaunting their wickedness around, and the world sits by and accepts them. Surely it is high time for Christians to be open about where they stand.

I read of an occurrence that happened just 100 years ago. A small town drunk had stopped taking care of his family. He was taken behind the shed and beat by the men in the town. They threatened if he didn’t shape up and start taking care of his wife and child they would come back.

Imagine that in our day! Now it is accepted and encouraged to divorce. Homosexuality is open and above board now. Abortion and atheism is the way of 2015.

Where are the Christians?

Climate change gets more attention than Bible morals and values being destroyed.

This gospel of hiding it away is hurting the lost. Satan also desires for our gospel to be hid. Are we falling into Satan’s snare of secrecy?

II Corinthians 4:1-2

(1) Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;
(2) But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

Verse 2 informs us that the ministy demands honesty.

So much of what I see explained here fits who Paul used to be. A Pharisee. How hypocritical and dishonest they were.

How craftily and deceitfully they handled the word of God. How guilty they were of blinding the eyes of fellow Jews to Christ because of the way they handled the word of God.

Paul no doubt thought of this as he penned these words.

How awful the guilt must have been for Paul as he thought back on how he had blinded the eyes of fellow Jews by handling the word of God deceitfully. He helped in the stoning of Stephen, He hunted down the followers of this radical new worship of Jesus Christ to kill them, He blinded the eyes of many with his deceitfulness.

In this verse, Paul was saying, “I’m compelled to change all of that, for I have received a more glorious ministry.”

The minister is to renounce the hidden things and secret things.

• Immorality
• Feelings
• Greed
• Desires
• Covetousness
• Thoughts
• Ambitions

All the hidden sins and secret faults are to be renounced.

Why? So I can minister to others.

I can’t expect the light of the glorious gospel to break through the veil of unbelief if my light is darkened. The minister of the gospel (i.e. every child of God) is called to be open and above board.

The unfruitful works of darkness is the walk of unregenerate man. It is the way of the lost.

Our walk is to be the walk of Jesus.

II Corinthians 4:1
“Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;”

Paul could not, did not, and would not quit.

Why?

Because this glorious ministry demanded someone to keep on keeping on. The greatness and glorious life of the new covenant the “this ministry” of verse one, compelled Paul to faint not.

So many are quitting and giving up. Years of fighting, years of work have taken their toll. Many quit for various reasons, but, beloved, in light of what we know the ministration of life is, we ought not to quit!

Paul put it this way: as we have received mercy, we fail not.

When is the last time God stopped giving His mercy to us? When has He ever ceased from doing that? He never has and never will stop!

His Mercy continually flows from above. As that mercy flows so ought our constancy in the ministry continue.

Regardless of the burdens and tasks we face, we ought to resolve in our heart that we will not faint. I can’t say what I will do tomorrow or the next day or the next week or year, but for today at least I will not faint! For in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

I encourage you to read these tremendous verses (Neh. 8:13-18) first, and then read this. It is a story of thanksgiving and praise.

Godly people taking time to thank God in a feast did not originate with the Colonists and Indians in America.

God’s people have been thanking God with food since Noah first stepped of the Ark and offered a burnt sacrifice to God, thanking Him for saving them. This scene has repeated itself often throughout the history of God’s people, and we are basically doing the same thing here.

But I want to draw special attention to this thanksgiving feast we have just read.

It is always a fascinating and truly thrilling thing indeed to read of instances where God so mightily moved in the hearts of His people that there is no room to suggest it was anything else but Him.

Here we read the rejoicing and obedience to the Lord and the thanksgiving on the lips of His people was so great there was never a time like it in the past 1,000 years of Jewish history.

Only those godly men of Joshua’s day celebrated in praise to the Lord and thanked God with equal strength as what is recorded in this passage.

Why did Joshua and his people celebrate so fervently?

The Lord had just single handedly opened up the Promised Land and delivered it to the children of Israel so miraculously that His people worshipped Him like never before.

This reminds me much of the early years of salvation and surrender when the Lord was new and afresh and His word was warm and inviting.

Our praise and worship was always on our lips, and we fed daily of the Word from Heaven. We knew God had singlehandedly saved us, and we rejoiced, knowing we were His children. But, alas, how that newness wears off! The joy of the Lord begins to fade, and we slip into the groves of comfort and complacency.

The salvation is there, but the surrender and service is not what it once was. We go through the routines and motions. We continue on in the same way, and our advancement with the Lord is hardly noticeable. Without being fully aware, we become like the children of Israel in our routine sacrifice and worship, and for 1,000 figurative years we sit idly by.

Oh, how we need that vital relationship with our Saviour! What a blessing, then, to read that after 1,000 years God’s people once again worshipped Him with the same vigor and solemnity of the days of Joshua. They went back to their roots and saw God afresh and anew as their forefathers had. Oh, may we return to the Lord and be strengthened by Him after a long and dry drought of worship.

True revival is a complete act of God.

For those 1,000 years, had not God’s men attempted to guide His people back to Him? And while glimpses of revival and hints and sparks of true worship appeared throughout their history, none were like this instance when God’s people whole-heartedly turned with such zeal to the Lord of Hosts.

Perhaps this is why God caused captivity and struggle and destruction to occur – so that the Children of Israel might be revived. They whole-heartedly turned to the Lord because of all of these events more than they ever did because of any prophet or priest directing them.

We should note that the long captivity of the Jews and the afflictions which attended it did more towards effecting their reformation than all which their Prophets and priests could do for a long series of years.

When God is truly exalted with His word, the results are drastically different.

May we go back to where we began and serve the Lord with gladness.

May we view these trying times and difficult days in the light of God still ruling and reigning and His ultimate goal is to be glorified and lifted up! May we seek the Lords revival in a dry and thirsty land.