(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

All right, we're in second Corinthians chapter four. And so let's get started right away. And just remember that, you know, basically, you know, the church of Corinth is a church is not perfect, obviously, it's got a lot of problems. This is the second letter that Paul's writing to them. And he's kind of going a little deeper in in second Corinthians, as you can see, and you'll see throughout the rest of this book, that there's a little more complicated doctrine in it. And Peter said that Paul would say things that are hard to be understood. And so sometimes you'll have to read through the things that Paul says a few times and like, what is he trying to say here? Because he's a great writer, but like so much that it makes me feel stupid sometimes reading his writing. But according to Peter, who was speaking of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, a lot of people had problems with some of the things that Paul had to say, because they're hard to be understood, because they're spiritually discerned. You know, we don't get all of our discernment, you know, the first time we read through the Bible, you know, you got to read through it. And, and God's going to teach you new things every single day that you read the Bible, if you're focused on it, and you actually care about what God's trying to say to you that day. If you just sit down and put all your distractions away, God will help you to understand what's in the Bible. So if you're having a hard time understanding, maybe just turn your phone on airplane mode, turn the television off, or whatever it is, you got any music in the background, and just get that's what's hard about the New Testament challenge is like, do you have the attention span to do it, stop everything you're doing, and read for an hour? Especially when you're through Luke, it's like, you know, we keep bringing up Luke, it's a great book. But like when you're, you know, did you notice if you've noticed if you did the challenge, when you get to the New Testament, like the shorter books, you can just buzz through it like really fast. Even in the Old Testament, it's kind of that way, too. It's like you get to the minor prophets, it's like, you know, you can read it really fast. But like, you're an Ezekiel, you're like, Oh, man, it gets rough. So, but, you know, sometimes doing God's will is hard, right? Anyway, let's look at the first verse in the chapter. Verse number one says, Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not. So notice it says, we have this ministry. And so there's a ministry that each and every single individual has in this church. And what is that ministry? It's the ministry of reconciliation. And that is a ministry that's given to all people. It's not just the apostles. A lot of people like to say, well, the preaching of the gospel was Jesus just commanded that to the apostles, and that was it. Well, Christianity would have died out pretty fast, wouldn't have, if nobody else ever preached the gospel after them, right? That's a stupid way to look at things. You know, people, they'll be like, well, that was just to the Jews. You know, they're all Jews, right? Pretty much. The apostles, that was just to the Jews. You know, that was just to the apostles. You know, like nobody else is supposed to preach the gospel. That's ridiculous. We're all supposed to preach the gospel. And so Paul's saying, we have this ministry. As we receive mercy, we faint not. And that's the thing about having a ministry, and obviously there's other good works that you do as a Christian, and there's lots of other good works that we can do. But the most important thing, obviously, is soul winning. And so preaching the gospel is everybody's job. Are some people better at it than others? Yes. Are some people introverts? Yes. But I've seen introverts win people to Christ lots of times. And so God can give you the strength, and God can give you the voice to preach. Remember Moses, he was like, I'm slow of speech. You know, pick somebody else. And he's like, have not I formed the tongue? So if God can help Moses to preach and speak all the things that he did with the children of Israel, can he help your tongue too? Absolutely he can. And it is everybody's job. Look at verse number two. It says, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. Now, I mean, obviously I believe that Paul is talking about the ministry that him and the apostles have received also here. And he does really get down to the details later on in the chapter where he's talking about the difference between, you know, I don't want to say this and make it sound like there's a superiority complex with people that are ordained, because there's not. But sometimes people that are ordained, they, you know, or their ministers, their names out there, like, everybody knows who Paul is. But a lot of times they didn't know who the other people were with him. But a lot of people don't know, we don't know the names of all the people in this church at Corinth that he's writing to. But he kind of gets down later, and we'll see this as we get into the chapter that he's saying, like, he starts making a difference between people that are, like, ordained or the apostles or, you know, or the pastors or whatever are getting a little more grief than the other people. So everybody goes through persecution, and I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, but it's just the way things are. But he's talking here about having renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. So as a preacher, you know, I'm supposed to not be dishonest with the congregation. I'm not supposed to be dishonest at all. But it says, not walking in craftiness, you know, it shouldn't be some sneaky thing that you're doing as a preacher or, you know, and that includes any Christian really, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth. So as a pastor, I'm not supposed to get up here and try to make you believe something in the Bible that I don't really believe is true. Just because I went to a certain Bible college, and that Bible college teaches a certain way. I know for sure over the Lord's Supper that people separate in Baptist churches because they don't do closed communion. If you don't do closed communion, you're not in the club anymore, you're a heretic or whatever. That's not a reason to separate. Because, no, obviously we believe how to do the Lord's Supper the way we do it, and I believe it's biblical. But like to say, like I wouldn't like condemn another pastor just because they did closed communion. You're like, what is closed communion? It's where only people that are registered members of the church, they're on this list of members, they've checked all the boxes, they've joined the church or whatever through some joining process, only those people are allowed to partake in the Lord's Supper, and everybody else is excluded. So basically, so if we did it on a Sunday night, you know, which we do, but if we did it on a Sunday night and then there's people that were guests that were not members of our church, they would say, hey, we're going to do the Lord's Supper, you need to leave. And so they would exclude them. So there's just doctrines like that where I think that that's, you know, it's deceitful to sit there and teach something that you don't really believe just to be part of the good old boys club. You know what I'm saying? It's like the pre-trib rapture. You know, don't sit there and watch after the tribulation, I mean, how can you just read Matthew chapter 24 and come out that there's a pre-trib rapture? You're not being honest, you know, to the preachers that preach this trash. And look, yeah, there's a lot of, you know, a lot of people believe a lot of different things about, you know, about end times and things like that, but don't be dishonest about it. If you're not sure, just don't preach it. But don't just preach something to toe the line and then act like we're the cult because we believe what the Bible says. It's like it says after the tribulation. So, you know, it's always funny, here's how you always can nail a pre-trib person, and you can always see how dishonest they really are when you say show me one clear scripture that teaches the pre-trib rapture. Go! And they never have it ever. You know why they don't? Because it's not in the Bible. That's why. There's no verse that says, guess what, there's going to be a secret rapture that nobody else can see, nobody else knows about it, but they're all going to, you know, your undies and your pants and your clothes are all going to be dropped into place on the ground and you're going to be gone. Some airplane pilot's going to be flying and all of a sudden he's going to disappear and the whole plane crashes because he went up in the rapture and nobody knew what happened. That's garbage. And to me, that's handling the Word of God deceitfully. Please tell me how you got to that. Listen, I read Matthew chapter 24 in the book of Revelation before I ever went to church, so the first time I ever heard the pre-trib rapture taught, I went right to the pastor and I wasn't being rude. I wasn't like saying, hey, you're wrong about this. I just said, I don't understand how you're coming to this conclusion. This is what it says. And then he explained basically Ruckmanism to me and I just like, okay, well, he didn't even answer any of my questions. He's like, well, some people think this, some people think that, some people think you do a combination of works and a combination of grace in the end times. I'm like, how can that be? Jesus died once for all. He placed his blood on the mercy seat one time. He's the perfect sacrifice. We don't have to have any other kind of way for salvation except for the blood of Christ. And so it really irritates me. And obviously pastors make mistakes. I'll preach stuff and I'll read back through it again or I'll maybe take a look at what somebody else believes about it and I'm like, you know what, maybe they're right. But there's a difference between intentionally preaching something that you know is wrong and then accidentally preaching something and then making a mistake. If you make a mistake, just own up to it. Or if you've changed your mind about something, change your mind about it. Just tell people, I've changed my mind about it. But to handle the word of God deceitfully, that's not what pastors or preachers are supposed to do. It's wrong. I mean, just think about the repentance thing. Listen, repentance means to change your mind. I'm not going back to the Greek, but the Greek word is minatoia or something like that. And people are like, you did go back to the Greek. Listen, I'm just telling you that the Greek word means to change your mind. That's what it means. Because here's the lie that people say, repentance means to be really, really sorry of all your sins and to stop, you know, some people say it's to stop sinning, but to say, here's what they'll say, it means to turn from your sins. That's not what it means. Because if it meant that, then God would be a sinner. Because God repents like 37 times in the Bible. So you're saying that God repented of his sins, he turned from his sins? That can't be what it means. You can't just make up all these definitions, like the strongest concordance wants you to. If you look in the strongest concordance under repentance, you're going to find like a list like this, this big of what it means. It can't mean all that stuff. So when the children of Israel, you know, God didn't want to take them to the land of the Philistines, lest they repent and go back to Egypt, it wasn't that they, you know, were going to, they were, they realized that they were sinning by going to the, through the land of the Philistines and they're going to go to Egypt. That doesn't make sense. You know why? Because that's not what it means. But handling the word of God deceitfully is teaching repentance to the, to the point where you're just like, that you're saying it means a turn from your sinner, be sorry. That's not what it means. Quit being dishonest and quit handling the word of God deceitfully. Get some smarts in your brain and learn what that term means, because it's not what it means, because otherwise God would be a sinner. And we know he's not. So anyway, and it says, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. So we preach the truth. That's what we're supposed to do. And it says, but if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. And that's really the bottom line when it comes to not preaching the gospel. There's a lot of Christians that never preach the gospel. I'm sure there's Christians that are saved Christians that never even attempted to get somebody saved. You know, the world's full of them. Does that mean they're not saved? No, but it just means that they're hiding the gospel. And it says, it is hid to them that are lost. Who's really being damaged here? You know, obviously you're being damaged by not getting the rewards that you could be getting in heaven, because all the time that we spend here sojourning is an opportunity for us to have a better resurrection. But the main thing is that people that you're hiding the gospel from, people that you're not telling the gospel to, people you're not handing an invitation to or some kind of way to maybe look at something else and be saved later on, you know, you're hiding that from someone that's going to be lost. And what does that mean? It means they're going to hell. You're hiding it from someone and that person's going to hell because you didn't preach to them. Because you hid the gospel from them. And so if you're hiding the gospel and not preaching it, it's hurting other people. You're not loving your neighbor as yourself. And so turn to John chapter 14 verse 15. John chapter 14 verse 15. I'm going to read for you Mark 16 15. Mark 16 15 says, And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Now here's what, you know, people will say. Well, he was talking to his 12 disciples. Yeah, he was. And obviously I believe that the best opportunity to get people saved is to be through the local church where there's a leader that sends people out. So he's talking to his leadership and he's saying, hey, go out and do it. So they're supposed to organize it. They're supposed to make sure it happens. I mean, did Paul do it by himself? No, he organized it. He was sent out of a church. He was ordained to do it. He got sent out with Barnabas and he went and turned the world upside down. And it wasn't just him and Barnabas, was it? No, it was John Mark and Silas and Aquila and Priscilla and, you know, Apollos. And I mean, he had a whole, he mentions in his epistles, he's like, so-and-so says hi. Hey, this person says hi. Hey, salute this person. And he's like, he's just talking up all these people. They're his fellow laborers. So it's not just to the apostles, it's to the apostles, it's to the leadership of the church to make sure that it happens. So if any pastor that plants a church, you know what, he's got to have some kind of a plan to reach the area with the Gospel and to reach the world with the Gospel. You're in John chapter 14 verse 15, it says, if you love me, keep my commandments. And so if Jesus commands us to go out and go soul-wanting, he commands us to go out and do good works, he commands us to preach the Gospel to every creature. Do you think he means that? He does mean it. And he said, if you love me, do you love Jesus tonight? Keep his commandments then. It's really that simple. And so if someone doesn't keep his commandments, would you say that they love him? They don't. It doesn't mean they're not saved either. I mean, does the Bible say if you don't love God, you won't go to heaven? Doesn't say that, does it? Now, obviously anybody that's saved should love God, right? But if you just don't show love to God because you don't keep his commandments, you don't really care, you've got the free gift. But it doesn't say you have to love God, does it, to be saved? You don't. I know that sounds weird for me to say that. You're like, well, yeah, of course you should love God. Of course, I believe that too. But he said, if you love me, keep my commandments. Now turn to 1 Corinthians 9 16, 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 16. It says, For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid upon me. Yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. This is the Apostle Paul saying, hey, woe unto me. That means bad things happen to me if I don't preach the gospel, right? And in verse 17 it says, For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward. But if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me. Now it's not talking about dispensationalism. It's talking about a pouring out, or like a, you know, if you, say you have a PEZ dispenser, it's a really good, you know what a PEZ dispenser is? You open the little thing and the little candy comes out. You're dispensing a piece of candy out of it, right? By pulling the head back. Well, when you go out and preach the gospel, you're dispensing the gospel. You're giving it to someone, but the Apostle Paul here is saying, hey, a dispensation of the gospel has been committed to me. So he says, if I do it willingly, I have a reward. But if against my will, a dispensation of the... So here's the thing, you can do it to get reward willingly, but even if you don't do it willingly and you just go out for duty or whatever, you're still getting rewarded. Does everybody feel like going soloing every single day that they go? No. There's times when you don't feel like going, when it's really cold outside, when it's really hot outside, like basically any time, every time. No. When you know it's going to be like a hard soloing area, it's like a real rich area, those are the ones that are hard to get up and go on, aren't they? But the Apostle Paul is saying, hey, either way, whether I do it willingly or not, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me. And that means a dispensation of the gospel is committed to all of us, right? We're supposed to be committed to preach the gospel, to get the gospel out. And whether we do it out of duty or not, we're still supposed to do it. It's still committed unto us. The ministry of reconciliation, reconciling man to God, that's our job. That's what we're supposed to be doing. We're ambassadors for Christ, right? And so what's an ambassador do? They go to another country and like try to make things good between two countries, right? And so you have these ambassadors all around the world that are going and this is the ambassador to the UN or whatever, all these different things. So, but as an ambassador for Christ, we're going to people and trying to reconcile and say, hey, hey, I'm from the country of, you know, the spiritual Israel. You know, whatever country you're from, it doesn't matter, you're part of spiritual Israel. And when you get there, you're like, hey God, or I mean, hey God, hey guy, I want to show you how you can have peace with God. You know, because I'm from this, you know, I'm from this spiritual country and I want to show you how you can be saved and how you can, because God, look, God is angry with the wicked every day. You know, the wrath of God abides on anybody that's not saved. So really, you know, God, you're trying to make things right between God and man. That's our purpose. Nobody else is going to do it. Nobody else is going to do it. God is not a Calvinist God either. He's not going to just appear out of the sky or come down and all of a sudden you're saved. That doesn't happen. It's a lie straight out of the devil's pit. That does not happen. God just doesn't come down and all of a sudden someone's filled with the Holy Spirit, even though they weren't even saved. That doesn't make sense. The Bible says you have to believe. That's what gets you saved. That's what the truth is. Now turn back to our scriptures in second Corinthians chapter four, verse four, second Corinthians chapter four, verse four. So, you know, the light of the gospel is important for us to go out and preach it. So we don't, it's a dispensation that's been given to us. It's a committed thing to us. And so you can't just say, well, hey, you know, it's not my thing. That's not my spiritual gift. Where does it say that it's a spiritual gift? It just says do it. Right? So second Corinthians chapter four, verse four says, 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. Now, who's the God of this world? Who's it talking about here? There's a small g right there. If you look down your Bible, look at what it is. It's a small g. A small g in the Bible is a devil. And this one in particular is the devil. That's what it's talking about. The devil was, you know, he turned against God and he took a third of the angels with him when he left. All those angels that he left with are here on this earth. They can go back and forth between heaven and earth. The devil goes to accuse us to God day and night. And so when he sees a Christian sin or do something wrong, he's like, look what they're doing. Punish them. Look at what they're doing. They're bad. But they also, they get involved in the affairs of mankind so much that there's just like this huge net of things that the devil just makes to catch people and to stop them from being saved. So it says that the God of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not. So if the gospel is hid, it's hid to them that are lost. So what are you supposed to do? You're supposed to stop it from being hid from their eyes. It's being hid by the devil. It says in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds. He's put something in everybody's minds that's not saved to stop them from being saved. Whatever that is that's stopping them from being saved, that's their worldview. That's what they believe. And people believe a lot of different and weird stuff, don't they? You'll get a lot of weird answers out there. I'm a pagan. I believe in the Norse gods or whatever. They're a fantasy. Come on. I believe in the Greek and Roman gods. It's like they're devils. The Bible says that they're not really gods. They're devils. So people are literally worshipping devils. They just don't realize it. Why? Because the devil has blinded their minds. And it says in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not. So the people that don't believe are already blinded. But it's up to us to stop that gospel from being hid from them so they can get that gospel, so they can get that light into the darkness that's, you know, in Genesis chapter, well, I'll get there here in just a minute, but, you know, the gospel, it says the light of the glorious gospel who is the image of God should shine unto them. What are we trying to do? It's like, you know, when it's dark you want to shine a light so you can actually see. Well, the whole world lies in wickedness. The whole world is deceived by the devil and like we're coming through with a flashlight and trying to shock people into reality. We're trying to stop them from being blind so that they can see. And when we come to their door it's like, you know, it's like that's why people get so upset. It's like, hey, I'm just good living to my sin and doing whatever I want and I'm playing Xbox and I'm doing playing Xbox live and then some Christian's at the door, you know, they get mad. But, you know, there's that one person out there that when they see the light they're glad for it and they want to not be blind anymore. They want to be able to see. They want to receive the gospel and all it takes is for us to get out there and do it. But, see, the devil is a big opponent to us. He's the greatest adversary. The Bible calls him the adversary. He's the adversary. He's the number one thing that we have to fight against and it's not a physical battle. We can't cast him out. We can't lock him up in anything. We can't, you know, stop him from doing anything. You know, it's the gospel that has to stop people from being how they are. They have to be saved and woke up. You know, they talk about this woke society. Well, the real being woke is being woke up out of the blindness that's caused in people's minds because the devil and whatever he's tricked them in. What are some of the things he uses? Well, he blinds them by other religions, number one. I mean, there's all these different, how come all these religions in the world, boom, number one. That's what they always do because people are spiritual. You know, they're just automatically spiritual in some way, shape, or form. God made us to be living souls and so people want to believe in something and the devil uses that as a tool to make fake religions, make false doctrine, and people will fall for that stuff. You know, a lot of people are just so blinded that they'll follow, you know, Joseph Smith or what's the Seventh-day Adventist chick, what's her name? Ellen G. White or, you know, they'll follow all this other stuff but the devil, he does that on purpose. To fool everybody, he has them blinded with these false gods and these false religions. The other thing he has people blinded through is their own achievements. People want to achieve and be great and they want to, you know, everybody wants to be a TikTok star or something nowadays. Do a little stupid dance, isn't that cool? No, it's retarded. You look like an idiot. You don't sing as good as the other person, that's why you're lip syncing. So, you don't dance as good as they do either. So, I mean, I don't, obviously I've never been on TikTok before so I don't, but the whole idea is just dumb to me. I don't know, maybe I'm just too old, I missed that gap or something, but that, it's just a point to prove that people want to achieve something. They want to achieve fame by their own, you know, human achievements and I'm a super TikTok star. Wow, you're so cool. You danced around and, you know, whatever. Wow, you really accomplished something. But people, you know, human achievement, like sports is a big human achievement thing. You know, people just, they make these things, they're gods, but it's just something that the devil kind of puts in there to stop people from achieving or, I mean, stop people from wanting to get to the truth. They want to, they want to rest in their own achievements. They want to glorify themselves. You know, there's, I'm going to preach a sermon too pretty soon. There's three different types of whores. All right, there's a literal whore, there's a spiritual whore, and then there's a attention whore. The attention whore wants to have their own achievements and glorify themselves and aren't I so great? That's how a lot of people are and that's a lot of reasons why people won't get saved. And, you know, through the cares of this world, the things that they care about, their things, their yards, you know, people will bow down and, you know, we'll be walking by and they're in their yard like digging in the earth and like, do you want, hey, we just want to invite you, get out of here. Like, they'd rather bow down to the earth, to the tree that they're putting dung around or whatever, or to the flowers that they're planting. They worship their own yard. They worship their own stuff, their own house. It looks like a museum, but you know what, you can't take any of that stuff with you. And the devil uses that kind of stuff to blind people's minds. He also uses riches, you know, the desire of riches. I mean, just think about what he did to tempt Jesus. What did he do? He said, I'll give you all this if you bow down and worship me. So, that's how the devil tempts people and ultimately through lies and the power of darkness. So, this thing of hidden knowledge, you know, all these, you know, these rich, these cult-type places and like, I don't know, just, you know, I'm going to give you knowledge that God doesn't want you to know. And that's what he did at Adam and Eve, right? He's like, you know, God's not telling you something. God's keeping this knowledge from you, you know, and if you do this, you'll be like God's. And that's what, and what did he ultimately do? He lied, tricked them, perverted God's word, and then the whole human race went into sin. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 25. I'm going to read for you in 2 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 11. It says, less Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. So, you know, obviously the devil doesn't want people to be saved. That's his main plan, really. He doesn't want people to be saved. But, you know, we shouldn't be as Christians ignorant of the devices it uses in our lives, too. He blinds the mind of the unbelievers, but he also, if you'll allow him access in your life, will blind the minds of believers, too. If you allow them to, okay? So, but we shouldn't be ignorant of the things he does, because he uses those same tricks, maybe not necessarily religion, but like riches, things, you know, honor and glory and self-anggrandizement and all that stuff. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 25. It says, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God, peradventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. What's the Bible say? That Satan can take an unbeliever captive at his will. If they're not saved, they're able to be taken advantage of by the devil. Obviously, God knows who's going to be saved and, you know, maybe he allows the devil to corrupt them to a certain extent, but I believe that God does things to make sure that we're going to get saved somewhere down the line. Maybe you reject it here, you reject it here, you reject it here, but he knows ultimately, at some point, you're going to get saved. So, obviously, God can protect us in certain situations, even if you're not saved. I believe he does that, but it says, but people are, we're supposed to help recover people, you know, we're supposed to instruct those that oppose themselves. How do they impose themselves? They don't even realize how stupid they're being. Hey, yeah, I really don't have time. I'm like, you know, I got the cats behind the microwave or whatever. It's like, really? You're going to pass up salvation because your stupid cat is stuck behind the microwave? Let that cat figure a way out. They figured a way in there, they'll figure a way out. But people have all kinds of dumb excuses, don't they, when you come to the door? Most of the time it's just really an excuse. They really just don't want to talk to you, but people just will send themselves to hell or, you know, just put things off about salvation over the dumbest things ever. You know, I got to be at work in 16 hours. It's like, okay, what does that have to do with me talking to you right now? But, you know, we're good about pushing people to a certain extent, like, hey, are you sure you don't have time? And that's good because, you know, what we're trying to help those people in meekness to, you know, those people that are opposing themselves, if God-paired venture will give them repentance to change their mind, right, to the acknowledging of the truth. Because what they believe, whatever it is, it's a lie. Whatever it is, because most people will proclaim their own goodness. Everybody thinks they're a good person. Everybody thinks they're going to heaven. For the most part, unless there's some Satanist that, you know, hell Satan, you know, these idiots that answer the door and say stupid things like that, you know what I'm talking about, right? Like they're just going to shock us into going, it's like, shut up, you clown. You know what I'm talking about? That irritates me. Sorry. I got a lot of things on my mind tonight, people. I got to get some stuff off my chest. Anyway, but, you know, God's the one that's going to give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and it's our job to go out and do that, but it says that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who's taken, who are taken captive by him at his will. The devil has people locked down, you know, but the gospel can free them. The light of the gospel can break that blindness that they have in their lives and help them to see things for what they really are, to help them see the truth, right? Is that what it says? To the acknowledging of the truth. Acknowledge it. You know what's true? Jesus Christ. You know what you believe, the Buddhism or whatever it is, whatever dumb thing you believe, you need to change your mind about what you believe and believe the truth. That's what repentance is. It's right there. Anyway, um, turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 13. 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 13. Mother baby room's lively tonight. All right. Let me start screaming here. All right. 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 13. The Bible says, For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel for Satan himself has transformed into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing for his ministers also to be transformed into ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works. And what is this trying to say to us? It's saying there's a lot of, here's another thing that Satan does to trick people. There's a lot of people that think that Mormons are basically good people. They're Christians. They're just a little different. No, no, no. They're apostles of hell. That's what they are. They're trying to trick you and trap you into believing something that's going to send you to hell. How is that a good person? Oh, let me help you move. I'll give you some cookies and Kool-Aid afterwards or whatever. They're riding a little bike. I see right through that stuff. To me, you might as well put some devil horns on a tail on them because that's what they really are. They're devils. But it says they're false apostles. So there's people, you know, there was real apostles, but now there's anybody that says they're a real apostle now is a false apostle, right? We used to get mail at our old church and it would say, apostle so-and-so. It's like, you're not an apostle. You're a liar. Paul was the last apostle. That's what it says in the Bible, 1 Corinthians chapter 15. So it says Satan is transformed into an angel of light. All these religions are like, you know, think about Joseph Smith. I don't know why I'm on Mormons or whatever right now, but Joseph Smith said an angel came and told him all that stuff, gave him the Book of Mormon, gave him the magic plates, you know, or whatever, and he interpreted it. And that the Indians that were before here were of the tribe of Israel, you know, but the funny thing about that is that DNA proves that that's not true. Oh, you know, they must have changed. The devil must have changed the DNA. It's like, oh yeah, the dinosaurs didn't really exist either, right? Idiots. But that's the kind of stuff that they, and the Mormon people are just like, when you talk to them at the door, aren't their eyes like this? The Kool-Aid, I call it the Kool-Aid stare. They're just totally, they're shut off. It's irritating. Like, I really, if they say they're Mormon right then, I just want to just turn around and walk off. But I don't because they could be a Jack Mormon or whatever. They'll sit there and let you tell them everything and pretend like they agree with everything, but it's called like, I want to say it's called Mormon lying or something. Lying for the Lord, that's what it's called. They actually have a teaching where it's okay to lie for the Lord to, yeah, I'll talk about it later when I preach again against Mormons. But anyway, that's crazy. I mean, they try to defend that stuff. It's so funny, but it's not funny because it really, it sends people to hell, you know, and they transform themselves into ministers of righteousness. What do they do? They wear the ties, they wear the, you know, they try to look like Baptists, they try, you know, just like the Jehovah's Witnesses, they try to look the part of a fundamental Christian, but they're transforming themselves into ministers of righteousness. They want to look like someone that is righteous so that they can trick people. And it's wicked as hell and Satan, you know, he's got his clan of workers that work for him and he, you know, he has people, you know, just messed up in their minds and blinded. So number one, Satan wants to stop salvation from happening. Number two, you know, he wants to destroy the saved. He wants to destroy the saved. How many saved people do you know that like, oh yeah, the Seventh-day Adventist are okay? If you think that, you're an idiot. They are a cult just like the Jehovah's Witnesses, just like the Mormons. I don't care if they have a King James Bible. They're a cult. Ellen G. White was a false prophetess and she was weird, but anyway, that's another sermon from their time, but they're not a Christian church. They're really not. They believe you have to keep the commandments. They believe that we, that the Sabbath day, that the Pope changed the Sabbath day from Saturday to Sunday and anybody that goes to church on Sunday has taken the mark of the beast. And so what do they think happens? What does the Bible say to people that take the mark of the beast? They go to hell. So they think anybody that goes to church on Sunday is going to hell, right? So, and you know, the Bible says we don't even have to keep the Sabbath anymore. So how about that? And she also taught vegetarianism, which is a doctrine. The Bible says specifically it's a doctrine of devils. So I'll preach a whole sermon about that at some point, but anyway, that's how Satan works. That's how he operates. Turn to Matthew chapter 13. There's no way I'm finishing this sermon. No way. Until like 8.30. You guys good for 8.30? It's been a while since I preached. I'm just kidding. Timo's like, no. I'm already tired. I'm just kidding. All right. Matthew chapter 13, verse 18 says, hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. Christ is going to explain this parable so that we understand what the seed is the word of God, right? That's what it says, right? Matthew 13, verse 19 says, when one heareth the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one. Who's the wicked one? Satan, right? And catches the way that which is sown in his heart. When you go and preach the gospel to people and they don't believe it, look, it says, this is he which has received seed by the wayside. So they hear the kingdom, they understand it not. So you preach the gospel. You know, everybody's been in this situation where you just keep trying and they just don't get it. They don't understand. And so then the Bible says the wicked one comes and snatches, he catches the way that which is sown in their heart. So when someone doesn't understand, sometimes they just will continue to not understand maybe. I'm not saying they're reprobate at that point. I'm just saying that he takes that from them, right? He doesn't want people to get saved. Now look at verse 20. It says, but he that received the seed in the stony place is the same as he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it. Yet hath he not rooted himself, but dureth for a while, for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he's offended. This is a person that's saved. This is a person that gets saved, but because tribulation in their life happens, persecution happens, whether that's family, friends, work, whatever it is, because you believe in Jesus, because you're preaching God's word, people will quit and get offended because, whoa, I wasn't expecting all this heat just for becoming a Christian. They weren't expecting it. Nobody prepared them and told them they're going to go through tribulation. They're going to go through these problems. Some people just can't handle it. It says by and by he's offended. That person will leave. Doesn't mean they're not saved. It just means that they quit. Satan wants to get you to quit. He wants you to get offended. He wants you to get persecuted, so you'll leave. I mean, people left Pastor Jimenez's church when he was getting, you know, people, the sodomites were attacking his church or whatever. People left. Why? They can't handle the, some people, they're real tough until it comes to standing with the man of God, standing with their church, standing with their pastor, and then I watched a whole bunch of people that I thought were pretty strong in the faith there leave like striped back cowards to never return. And that's how the, that's another way that the devil attacks, right? Look at verse 22. It says, he also that receiveth seed, or receives seed, excuse me, among the thorns is he that heareth the word and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he becometh unfruitful. So here's another thing that the devil does. He tries to throw the cares of this world, the everyday life and the deceitfulness of riches. That's how he operates. Well, hey, this other job's, you know, gonna offer you $10 more an hour, but you got to move the podunk holler where there's no good church. Boom, you're done. That's it. And you know how many times I've warned people about not moving away to a place where there's no good church? You know why I do that? Because that's exactly what the devil wants them to do. Oh, well, you don't understand. There's, you know, there's a good Presbyterian church there. They're King James only. They're not Baptists, bro. They're Calvinists. Don't go. They go anyway. They fall. You know, I've had people say, yeah, we're gonna stay strong no matter what. They're not. They're not. They're done. Because you can only go to some lame, weak-sauce church for so long before you're gonna get, you know, snagged out of church. Period. Verse 23, but he that received his seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word and understandeth it, which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth some in hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. And this is the person that hears it, takes it in, sticks with it, and they get people saved, you know. That's what the bringing forth fruit is. Some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. If you go soul-wanting enough, you could get a hundred people saved in the year. You know, it's basically just saying that in the seasons, not everybody just gets people saved every single week. Not every person gets people saved in every single soul-wanting. You know, if you came back with numbers and we were like 10 saved every time, I'd be like, you're full of crap. I mean, you know, unless you're like in the Philippines or you're someplace where it's really super receptive, that's not gonna happen. So, but, you know, people, we're gonna get people saved. If you go soul-wanting, you're gonna get people saved. If you preach the gospel, people are gonna get saved. John 3 19. John 3 19. And here's, and here's the real thing, is that ultimately we can do our job, we can shine the light of the gospel into people's face and show them the truth, but people still have their own decision to make. See, God doesn't force anybody to be saved. God is not here to just make you do something. You got the choice. Either believe or you don't. Look what it says in John 3 19. It says, and this is the condemnation that light is coming to the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. Some people just wanna stay in their sin. Some people choose sin and the life that they have now, they make a decision. They say, you know what, I like the darkness. I'm gonna stay in the darkness. The light, I don't like the light. I don't wanna do good. I don't wanna be good. I don't wanna have to give up all this stuff. And it says that because their deeds are evil, they wanna be evil. It says, for everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. So, you know, there's just, there's people that just won't get saved. That's the whole X factor thing. You can take the blinders off of people. You can help people see the truth of God's word and the truth of the gospel, but ultimately that person can understand it and still say, you know what, I don't want it. And I've had that happen before and that's where I believe people do turn into reprobates. I believe when someone understands it fully, they understand the gospel and they just say, but I'm not going to get saved because I don't want to. Then I feel like God's done with them at that point. What more can you say? You know, they rejected the word of the Lord and he's not gonna take too kindly to that. Because the Holy Spirit has to help you understand that. He has to help you understand what salvation is. So, when you're getting someone saved or when you're preaching the gospel to someone, there's more at work than just you. There's more at work than just the Bible verses. The Bible verses are the Spirit. You know, the Spirit of God comes and he tries to convince that person of their need for salvation. And if they say, if they understand it and they don't get saved, then they're rejecting God's word. It says, but he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be manifest that they're wrought in God. So, ultimately people are going to get saved no matter what. But it's not going to be a big amount of people. So, you know, and I've heard this saying before and it says the greatest trick that the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he wasn't real. And I know that's from a dumb Hollywood movie, but it actually is a quote from somebody else from a long time ago. It's actually quoted by a couple different people. I went and did the research. I don't want to just be a movie quote guy or whatever, but it's true. It is a big trick that he pulled. To convince people that he's not real makes people not be afraid. You know, if there's a devil, there's got to be a God. So, that's what I realized. That's why I got saved. It's like if the devil's real, which I believe he is, then God must be real too. And so, when people get that, they'll get saved. But let's look back at our text in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse number 5. I know I'm really just moving along in this chapter. But anyway, it says, for we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. So, what's it say? We preach not ourselves. You know, and there's a lot of people out there, and I've seen people do this, and it's really annoying when people just go, let me tell you my testimony. If I ever catch anybody in this church doing that, I'm gonna smack you. I'll give you a holy smack. All right. Your testimony is not going to get someone saved. Period. I mean, if you want to tell somebody how you got saved, I think those kind of things can be inspiring to people, but like that's not how you should lead into something. Because what are you doing at that point? You're preaching yourself. It says we preach not ourselves, right? So, it's not our testimony of how we get saved, but the testimony of what Jesus did to save us. That's what the gospel is, really. So, it's Jesus Christ the Lord. We're not preaching our own testimony. I've had people say, well, first I do my own testimony for about eight minutes. It's like, why? Nobody cares. They don't even know you. Why do they care? Their minds are blinded. Like, the last thing they want to do is listen to somebody stammer about their own testimony. Why don't you tell the testimony of the person you're supposed to be telling, which is Jesus. Look at verse six. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now, let's turn to Genesis chapter number one. So, what is this talking about here? It's saying who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness. Who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness? God did, right? Genesis chapter number one. So, really, this is pretty cool that it kind of brings us up, because the first three verses talk about this, right? In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God said, let there be light, and there was light. There's the command for the light to shine out of the darkness right there. That's what it's talking about, right? And it says, to shine out of the darkness has shined in our hearts. So, when we heard the gospel, it was like God shining the light of Christ into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now, look at John chapter one, verse one, and it explains this. This is the fulfillment, basically, of God. Why does he tell us this in Genesis chapter one? That he commanded the light to shine out of the darkness, because our world is in darkness now. It's a picture of how our world is right now. The world was in darkness, but God commanded the light to shine in that darkness so you could see that light. And so, just a picture of the first day of creation is a picture for us that the gospel is shining upon us. And so, he divides the light from the darkness also, doesn't he? So, we're not supposed to be partakers with the darkness. Look at John 1.1. It says, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. So, Jesus is that light that was shined into the darkness, just like it says in our text in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 6, but it says in verse 6 here, we're still in John 1, there was a man sent from God whose name was John. The scene came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. And that's basically what we are all today. You know, if you're a true Baptist, you know, we're still telling people about that light. Isn't that what John the Baptist did? I mean, why are we called Baptist? You know, because we're supposed to be proclaiming that truth to people still today. You know, and John came to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. And us as Baptists today, we are here to bear witness of that light also. And so true Baptists are out still getting people saved to this day. You know, I saw some post about like, do Baptists dance and, you know, do like prophesying and all this other stuff? You know, they were talking about like some kind of weird Pentecostal stuff or whatever. I was like, true Baptists, you know, are saved. So, because people are like, it doesn't matter whether you're a Baptist or whether you're a Christian or not. Yeah, because, you know, all the non-denominational churches are just tearing up the streets. So, we run into them all the time, don't we? All the Pentecostals are just out there barnstorming the town with the Gospel all the time, aren't they? You know, all these other false churches, what are they doing? They're doing nothing for God. They're not going soloing and the ones that are are cults. The Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses, who's supposed to be out spreading, you know, showing people what the light is? It's the Baptists. And true Baptists are always going to do that. Obviously, there's Baptists that have lost their way. They might as well just take their name off the sign. Baptists, be such and such community church. You know, Abundant Life or whatever other, you know, cheeky name you can find in the Bible. Just bleed Baptists off of it. If you're not bearing witness of the light, then shut up and continue your little club that you're doing because it's not a legit church. So, it says, he was not that light but he was sent to bear witness of the light. That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. And God wants every man in the world to see that light, doesn't he? And so, he is the true light and lighteth every man that cometh in the world. So, God gives everybody a chance to be saved. I believe that. You know, he says, I'll draw all men unto myself. If I be lifted up, I'll draw all men unto myself. He's going to give everybody a chance. It says, he was in the world, the world was made by him and the world knew him not. He came unto his own and his own received him not. The very light of the world came to his own people and they rejected him. So, that's how dark the world really is. Look at verse 12, but as many as received him to them gave you power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name. So, there's always a remnant that's going to get saved and that's great. It says, which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Salvation is of the Lord. That's what the Bible teaches. It's not by what bloodline you come from, nor your will trying to get yourself there, nor of the will of the man, nor the will of flesh. Flesh is not going to get someone saved. It's going to be God through the spirit, right? And it says, and the world was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. So, you know, God has a plan for us. It's to be a light and to preach that light. Be a Baptist. What's wrong? Hey, there's nothing wrong with saying I'm a Baptist. I get sick of that. It's like, oh, we're not a denomination. We're an independent Baptist church. And so, as Baptist, you know, John was out in the wilderness until the time of his appearing, but you know, when it's time to appear, it's time to get out there and preach that light. Let's go back to our text, 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 7. I'm going to buzz through this real quick, all right? I'm almost done. I promise. Okay, I don't promise, but I'm almost done. Anyway, 2 Corinthians 4 verse 7 says, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels and that excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. If you're a Christian today, you're going to go through some trouble. All that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But, you know, he's talking about how we can have trouble happening on every side. You know, we've got the world to fight, the devil to fight, our own flesh to fight. It's a hard battle, isn't it? But, you know, even though we're troubled on every side, all the things are happening in our life, we just don't understand how it's going to work out, you know, yet not distressed. Not so stressed that you just have no hope of what's going to happen for the future. We're not, we're perplexed, but not in despair. Because, ultimately, even if we, even if we die some horrible death out soul winning or whatever it is happens to us, whether the government turns on us, the tribulation starts, whatever, you know, we're not in despair because, you know what, we have a better hope for the future. A lot, a hope that other people don't have. We got heaven to look forward to. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Jesus said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Even if you're tortured to death for Christ, you know what, you're going to wake up with a better resurrection. The Bible says in Hebrew, some decide, they said, I'd rather take the torture to get a better resurrection. So, you know, you're going to get a better resurrection. So, I mean, obviously, it's going to suck for that moment where you're getting tortured. Now, if some homos try to get a hold of me or something, I'll just kill myself. But, you know, other than that, I'll let them kill me. Sorry, I don't want to be abused in that way. But it says, persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed. Even if we're cast down, we're not destroyed. You know, I know the Jehovah's Witnesses believe in the destruction doctrine where you just die and you don't really go to hell, you just burn up really fast and that's it. Yeah, that doesn't sound like, you know, a fair punishment. Oh, Hitler just gets to go and burn up real quick and that's it for all the things he did wrong, Stalin and all these other people. No, it's a punishment that lasts forever. Anyway, it says, always bearing, verse number 10, about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. That's where I think he's kind of venturing on to, you know, not every Christian got killed by martyrdom. No, hardly ever does this actually happen. I mean, obviously it happens probably in other places. We're not really experiencing that right now. But, you know, the Apostle Paul, he read about his life and he was severely persecuted. They were always trying to kill him and people were getting killed. You know, James was killed with the sword. You know, Herod was trying to kill Peter. He killed John the Baptist. He chopped off his head. I mean, people are, you know, Stephen was stoned to death. And people do go through this, but I mean, Paul's kind of separating, like he's kind of indicating here that he's being persecuted more than other people are. Then the people at the Church of Corinth, they're not really getting persecuted on the level that Paul's getting persecuted on. Right? Look at verse 12. It says, So then death worketh in us, but life in you. See how he's separating the difference between who he's talking to and he's talking about himself there? Death worketh in us, but life in you. We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed and therefore have I spoken. We also believe and therefore speak, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you. So he's kind of like, you know, he's talking about him himself and probably the other men that are ordained or, you know, having to, you know, bear the brunt of all this persecution. Because I mean, honestly, there's not a day that goes by where someone's not saying something mean and nasty to me. I mean, do you go through that every day? So I'm not trying to, like, make you feel sorry for me or something. I'm just, that's the job that I've decided to do. But that's what, you know, that's what pastors have to go through. You know, pastors do have to go through a lot of grief. You know, the Apostle Paul's basically saying, hey, you know, they're trying to murder us. You know, he's getting, he's showing the marks of the Lord Jesus in his body because they've beaten him and left scars upon him. You know, that hasn't happened to me. But I think that Paul's just like saying, hey, we're taking all this for you so you don't have to bear the brunt of what we're bearing. You know what I'm saying? Like, so Paul's persecution was way worse than, you know, the average church member at Corinth. That's all I'm saying. But is it, now I'm not saying that it's not possible for that to happen to other people. You know, I want you in the boat with me. You know, I want you to get persecuted. You need to get some rewards in heaven too. So, but if you stick at this church, you're probably going to get persecuted at some point. If you stick in a good church, you're going to get persecuted. But you know what? God has our back and that's what all, you know, we're not forsaken. We're not in despair. We're not cast down. I mean, we're not destroyed. And even if we get killed for the faith, you know, so what? You know, you get a better resurrection. I don't know what that means. You know, maybe better privilege. I don't know exactly what that means, but if it's better, it's not worse, right? So anyway, and it says, let's see, look at verse 15. And all things are for your sakes that the abundant grace might, through the thanksgiving of many, redound to the glory of God. Now, I looked up that word redound and it means to greatly contribute to or come back upon. So, you know, the things that are done, the persecution that happens to us and, you know, when thanks is being made for people that get saved through the gospel of, I mean, all the missionary work that Paul did, you know, that thanksgiving, you know, the abundant grace gives them thanks, you know, gives that thanksgiving to God, which redounds to his glory. It makes his glory, it contributes greatly to his glory, which obviously the great, you know, we need to give glory to God. You know, if you're just going soul-winding always in your flesh, you know, remember that God's part of that equation. It's not your slick tongue. It's not your great verses that you have chalked up. It's not your way you're presented in some flashy way. You know, God is ultimately the one that's saving that person. Now, we are partners with God. I'm not taking away our part because if we weren't doing it, then nobody else will be doing it, right? So, it's important. But, you know, we want to give God the glory. We want God to get the glory for the things that he does. Verse 16, for which cause we faint not, but through our outward, though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight and glory. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. So, we see everything with our eyes here. Those things, you haven't really seen anything that's eternal, have you? We haven't got to see that yet. Like, nobody's seen Jesus. He's eternal. Anybody seen Jesus? I got a hospital I can take you to on the way home. You know, nobody's seen Jesus here. That's something that we hope for. That's something that we're going to see. You know, the things that are, you know, it says, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. We have a hope of eternal things that we've never seen before, but this life right now that we live, it's just temporary. The bodies that we live in right now, temporary. The houses that we live in, temporary. The jobs that we work at, temporary. The marriages that we have, temporary. Not that those things aren't good, but just remember that, you know, this life is a struggle. It really is, and there's a lot of things that will make us quit, but you know, I just pray that our, my biggest hope for people in our church is that you don't quit. Finish strong. Finish the race. So just to recap everything, you know, don't stop soul winning. We're commanded to do that. You know, beware of Satan's devices and the things that he uses to trip us up and the things he uses to trip up other people. You know, remember who the light is, and it's not you. You're not the light. Don't use your testimony to try to get people saved. Use the testimony of Christ, and every trial that we go through has a purpose. We might not understand what the purpose is. We might think, this sucks. Why are we going through this right now? This is so hard, whatever, but there's a purpose for it, and you know, don't get discouraged because of the things that we go through and quit because there's an eternal thing that we haven't even seen yet that's way better than this world. All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for this chapter in the Bible, great, great chapter in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Lord, I pray that you'd help us to keep these things in our minds and our hearts, Lord, and think about the things that were preached tonight. I pray that you'd just help us apply these things to our lives and to look at the big picture and not be short-sighted. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.