The Light of the Gospel
Text — ‘ The Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ.”
y: - 2 Cor. 4: 4.
PAUL’S PERCEPTION OF THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL. — THE ONE
‘ THING WORTH LIVING FOR. — WHAT PREVENTS MEN SEEING IT. — I. PAUL’S NAME FOR THE GOSPEL. — A GOSPEL OF THE GLORY OF CHRIST. — OF HIS PERSON — OF HIS LOVE. — OF HIS IN-CARNATION. — OF HIS SACRIFICE. — OF HIS RESURRECTION. — OF HIS SECOND COMING. — II. THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. — A LIGHT UNVEILED. — DIVINE. — REVEALING. — PHOTOGRAPHIC. — JOY-IMPARTING. — III. WHAT TO DO WITH THE LIGHT. — LOOK TOWARDS IT. — SEE ALL THINGS BY IT. — VALUE IT. — KEEP CHRIST ALWAYS IN THE FRONT.
SHINING in the centre 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 it, word for word, 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 Saviour 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 saw most clearly the glory of his Lord, and that precious
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Gospel which is built up thereon, and he marvelled that others could not see it also. Considering their case with care, he sorrowfully perceived that they — must first have shut their eyes by wilful unbelief,and = that, therefore, 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 special evil power had operated to hold them in darkness. The devil himself must have blinded them, and even he found it a great task to shut out: the glorious light, and to accomplish it he had to assume all his power as “the god of this” world.”
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 criticise 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 spiritual truth. I pray that while I] am speaking of the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, that light may penetrate their minds.
I. At the outset, let us consider
PAUL’S NAME FOR THE GOSPEL: “the Gospel of the glory of Christ.” It is very evident that the apostle felt that the Gospel was solely ww 20M) pee ee Se 2 ee ee, i ae. Ps on + Ti eo ae Nh asc Reh ee, a Se thas e R
and altogether of Christ. The Anointed was, in his view, the one object of the glad tidings, from beginning to end. When He was born, the angels proclaimed good tidings of great joy to the sons of men; and after His death, His human messengers went forth to all nations with messages of love. His death is the birth of our hope; His resurrection is the rising of our buried joy; His session at the right hand of God is the prophecy of our eternal bliss. Christ is the author of the Gospel, the subject of the Gospel, and the end of the Gospel. His hand is seen in every letter of that wonderful epistle of divine love called the New Testament, or New Covenant. He, Himself, is glad tidings to us in every point, and the Gospel is from Him in every sense. That is not gospel which does not relate to Jesus. The glory of the Gospel, then, lies very much in the glory of our Lord’s person, This is the Gospel — that the Son of God Himself gloriously undertook the salvation of men, and therefore was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. If we had here A VAST HOSPITAL full of sick folk, it would be the best of news for those languishing therein if I could tell them that a great physician had devoted himself to their healing; and the more I could extol the physician who had come to visit them, the more would there be of good news for them. If I could say to them, “The physician who is coming to succor you is possessed of infallible wisdom and unerring skill, and in him are united lovre ing tenderness bet aune power,” ’ how they Me i smile upon their beds! Why, the very news we a ey half restore them! Should it not be much more with desponding and despairing souls when they hear — that He who has come to save is none other than the - glorious Christ of God?“
- which lies in it. Herein to us is His glory. He loved us so, that heaven could not hold Him; He loved
-and shame; glory in His having nowhere to lay His -
The glory of Christ lies not only in His persone ae La in His love. Remember this, and see the Gospel |:
so, that He descended to redeem us; and having — come among us amid our sin and shame, He loves us still, “Having loved His own which were in the, ce world, He loved them unto the end.” Love, thou hast reached thine utmost glory in the heart of the 4 divine Saviour! And the glory of this love, which is — without beginning, boundary, change, or close, is the BS very life-blood of the Gospel. The love of Jesus is 4s the glad tidings of joy.” This being so, beloved, we next see ne glory of His incarnation. To us it was the glory of Chia that He was born at Bethlehem, and dwelt at Naza- — reth, It looks like dishonor that He should be the carpenter’s son; but throughout all ages this shall be — the glory of the Mediator, that He deigned to ben partaker of our flesh and blood. There is GLORY IN HIS POVERTY
head; glory in His weariness and hunger. Surpassing glory springs from Gethsemane and the bloody sweat, from Calvary and the death of the cross. All
C aven could not yield Him reteh renown as that which comes from the spitting and the scourging, the nailing and the piercing. A glory of grace and tenderness surrounds the incarnate God; and this, to * those convinced of sin, is the Gospel.
The glory of Christ is further seen in His atoning sacrifice. But you stop me and say, “That was His = humiliation and His shame.” Yes, it is true, and therefore it is His glory. Is not the Christ to every ei loving heart most of all glorious in the death of the cross? What garment doth so well become our: Beloved as the vesture dipped in His own blood? yHe is altogether lovely, let Him be arrayed as He may; but when our believing hearts behold Him covered with the bloody sweat, we gaze upon Him with as adoring amazement and rapturous love. His flowing crimson bedecks Him with a robe more glorious than a the imperial purple. We fall at His feet with sevenfold reverence when we behold the marks of His passion. Is He not most of all illustrious as ey OUR DYING SUBSTITUTE?
We will now travel a little further, to His resurrec-
tion, wherein His glory is more palpable to us. He could not be holden by the bonds of death. He was dead: His holy body could die, but it could not see corruption; so, having slept a little while within the chamber of the tomb, He arose and came forth to light and liberty — the living Christ glorified by His resurrection. Who shall tell the glory of the risen Lord? Consider it deeply, meditate upon it earnestly; and, as you do so, hear the clear sound of glad tidings of great joy. For our raatest consolation we do not on look to this precept or to that promise, so much as to
Jesus Himself, who has by His rising from the dead —
given us the surest pledge and guarantee of our ves;
deliverance from the prison of guilt, the dungeon of despair, and the sepulchre of death.
Once more, lift up your eyes a little higher, and ae
note the glory of His enthronement and of
HIS SECOND COMING.
He sits at the right hand of God. He that once was hung up upon the tree of shame now sitteth on the throne of universal dominion. Instead of the nail, behold the sceptre of all worlds in His most blessed hand. All things are put under His feet. His second coming, for which we daily look, is our divinest hope. Mayhap, before we fall asleep the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the trump of the
archangel and the voice of God; and then shall the —
righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of
their Father. Then will our weary days be ended:
the strife of tongues, the struggle against sin, the
stratagems of error, all will be finished, and truth and
holiness shall reign supreme. Mark this: the less you make of Christ, the less Gospel you have to trust in. If you get rid of Christ
from your creed, you have at the same time destroyed
all its good news. The more Gospel we would preach, the more of Christ we must proclaim. If you lift up
Christ, you lift up the Gospel. If you dream of
preaching the Gospel without exalting Christ in it, you will give the people husks instead of true bread.
In proportion as the Lord Jesus is set up on a glorious high throne. He becomes salvation to the sons
of men. A little Christ means a little Gospel; but the
* true Gospel is the glory of Christ.
II. Secondly, let us consider
THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL.
Our apostle speaks of “the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ.” That light is, first of all, unveiled. Whatever light there was in the law — and there was
Ee much — it was latent light. The veil on the face of
Moses was typical of the way in which the ceremonials of the law were hidden from the sight of men.
We forget that a great majority of those things whereof we read in the law were never seen by the Israelites as a people. Do not suppose that any Israelite ever looked within the veil; none but the high-priest ever entered there. Even the holy place outside the veil was reserved for the priests. The most of the sacrificial types were as much matters of faith to the Israelites as the meaning is a matter of
faith to us. They did not see even the patterns of the heavenly things; they had to be told of them; and in
the hearing, they had to exercise faith, as we also do. But, my brethren, our Gospel is one, not of the veil
which hides, but of the lamp which shines. The Gospel of the blessed God is intended to be conspicuous
as the lighthouse on the rock, which is seen afar. It
is so illuminating that everyone in the house may see by it. The Gospel which is not known is of no value;
it is as much intended to be understood as light is
meant to be seen.
cannot illuminate the Gospel; it is itse
1 tion.
Ehis. Teh lies next place, is 2
Not by rhetoric and ee do “men
as a Bie: believe their Bibles; but they will not re them. In itself the Gospel has such a wonderful power of making itself felt, that, if men did not resis its influence, it would reveal divine things to them. wish I could induce unbelievers here to read the story — of the crucifixion every morning, and to keep on te reading it and studying it; for 1 am persuaded th the light which streams from the cross would, by t blessing of God, open their eyes, and enter their souls savingly. 5
For, mark you, the light of the Gospel of the Hom of Christ is divine light. The true power of the Gospel of Christ lies not in its natural reasonableness, nor — in its adaptation to human need, nor in its moral — beauty, but in the attendant power of the Spirit of — God. God is in the Gospel, and therefore it is mighty. We may preach to you for a thousand years together, and never a soul of you will receive Christ, unless the same Spirit that spake light into the prime- 2 ae val dark shall say, ‘Let there be light.” Salvation i is” a supernatural process. God Hiniself must come pa
see. This light is
reads f es
sy; A REVEALING LIGHT.
aming into the heart, it reveals the hidden things
we see our own shame and sinfulness. Did it need ( d Himself to redeem us? then we must have been
ould die? then sin must be exceeding sinful. That
Beery, and the idol gods are made manifest in all their hideousness! May God send this light to many, that their ruin, their doom, their remedy, and their way of obtaining it, may be plainly perceived. The light of the Gospel also enlivens. No other light eal give life to the dead. You may make the a ‘strongest light in the world flash frequently upon a corpse, but there will be neither breath nor pulse. But the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ Phases life with it. ‘The life was the light of men.’ 2 “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, A and Christ shall give thee light.” Darkness is death, but the light of God is life. Let but this Sun of; Righteousness arise, and He not only brings healing, but life.
‘This light is photographic — you get that in the Ee neighborhood of the text, in the last verse of the third chapter. See the Revised Version: ‘But we
-. of the Lord, are transformed into the same image
ver the light of the glory of eas comes
darkness. When the glory of Christ is seen, then
dire bondage. Did it need that the incarnate God.
all, with unveiled face, reflecting as a mirror the glory /
j from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.”; ee: The light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ:
IMPRINTS CHRIST’S IMAGE
upon the character of every believer. We see Him,
and, seeing His love, we learn to love; seeing His
life, we learn to live; seeing His full atonement, we
hate evil; seeing His resurrection, we rise to newness of life. By the power of the Spirit working from day to day, we are quietly transformed from our old likeness, and conformed to the likeness of Christ, till our
deformity is lost in blessed comeliness of conformity to Him. If we saw Him more clearly and more constantly, we should grow into His likeness more rapidly.
No sanctification is worth having but that which comes of communion with the holy Lord through the power of the Holy Ghost. You may read the biographies of good men, and you may copy them in all’
simplicity, and yet in the end you may become a@ carzcature of perfection, and not the very image thereof. The perfect character of Jesus is yet
THE MOST EASY TO IMITATE. It is safe to copy Jesus; for in Him is no excess or
defect; and, strange to say, that character which is in.
some aspects inimitable is in others the most imitable of all. I have often been depressed in view of the high character of certain saints whom I honor, because I have felt that I could never be like them, under any circumstances. I know one who is full of faith and of all goodness; but he is always solemn,
and constantly absorbed “in meditations high.” I
never could ‘grow exactly like him; for there are cer-
tain mirthful elements in my constitution; and if they were taken away, I should not be the same man. When I look at my Lord, I see much in Him that is supernatural, but nothing that is unnatural. We see in Him humanity in perfection; but the perfection never conceals the humanity. He is so holy as to be a perfect model; so human as to be a model available for poor creatures such as we are. i
Yet, further, it creates peace and joy. This light brings delight. I cannot imagine a man unhappy who clearly perceives the light of the glory of Christ. Is Christ glorious? Then it does not much matter what becomes of me. Have you never heard of dying and - wounded soldiers in Napoleon’s wars who still clung to their emperor with an idolatrous love in the hour of death? Lifting himself upon his elbow, the soldier of the Old Guard gave one more cheer for the great captain. If the dying warrior saw Napoleon riding over the field, he would with his last gasp cry, “Vive 2 Empereur!” and then expire. Infinitely more commendable is the loyalty of the believer to the Lord Christ. Surely there is a Gospel in the glory of Christ to our sad hearts, That Gospel lifts us out of the damps of doubt and fear into the clear blue of heavenly fellowship. God grant that we may feel this uplifting more and more! Thus have I tried to describe the qualities of this light; but you must see it for yourselves.
HI. And now let us consider
WHAT WE SHALL DO WITH IT.
Do with it! Look towards it. Let us first indulge ee as you please, and your eyes will pee stronger the longer you gaze on His perfections. I
at beseech you, beloved in the Lord, to get alone, and
ae give yourself to meditate upon the glory of the once- despised Jesus. Track Him from the cradle to the -eross, from the cross to the crown. I cannot suggest to you any subject more instructive, more comforting, -more ennobling, than this. Look at this light: for it
is a pleasant thing to behold this sun. Have you
never heard how the Laplanders climb the hills when the sun is at last about to appear after the weary
Winter months? How they rejoice in the first beams of the rising sun! So let us rise to lofty meditation,
and look to our Lord and Master, till we perceive His
mediatorial glory, and are blessed thereby. Have
you no time? Give up your newspaper for a week —
that you may sanctify the time to the noble end of considering the glory of your Lord; and I will warrant that you shall get a thousand times more out of such thought than from skimming the daily journal.
‘Look unto Jesus, and the light will grow like the glory of heaven.
Next, if you say that a man cannot always stand
looking at the sun, I admit the statement, and change the advice. See all things by this light. How differently things look in sunlight to what they do by
gas-light or candle-light! Let us regard all things by their appearance in the light of the glory of Christ.
Be see
ae ees ee i
eae”
In this iieht you see rihings fare Many of fhe wise ey “men of the period ought to be treated as Diogenes het
- treated Alexander. The conqueror of the world said
to the man in the tub, ‘What can I do for you? Ms a
He thought he could do everything for the poor phi-
losopher. Diogenes only replied, “Get out of the
sunlight.” These wise people cannot dousa greater
favor than to remove their learned selves from standing between us and the sunlight of the ever-blessed
Gospel of the glory of Christ.
Beloved, when asked what we should do with this ane light, I answer again, value it. Esteem the glorious
Gospel of Christ more than all besides. Let us also
hold it out with great confidence.
THIS LIGHT MUST WIN in the long run. Preach Christ, and away goes the
God of this world. Exait Christ, and down goes the devil. Beloved, let us persuade men to let this light
shine around them. They cannot see it because of
unbelief; but if it shines around them, it may bring.
them eyes. God the Holy Spirit blessing it, light will beget sight. Induce your friends to hear the
- Gospel and read the Word of God, and who can tell
but they will be saved? And, lastly, let all who try to preach and teach keep Christ always in the front. The Gospel must
have Christ as its centre and its circumference; in
fact, as its all in all. The Gospel is not the Gospel
without Christ. The Gospel will have no dominant
idea in it but Christ. Let us sing with the Blessed
Virgin, “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my ais shall live cere Tee to Bree all: are dying of serpent-bites; for looking, ye shall ‘ God bless these words in which I have dextied é
Amen.