Good morning.

Turn with me, if you would, in your Bibles to Second Corinthians, chapter four. And until they get the sound fixed, I’ll just be yelling, okay? Second Corinthians, chapter four.

Good job.

Second Corinthians, chapter four. Beginning with verse one. Apostle Paul writing to the church at Corinth, defending his ministry against those who accuse him of being not an apostle, of not being a servant of God. Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. We’re not discouraged, in other words, but we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel, of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants. For Jesus sake. For God who said, let light shine out of darkness has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Let us pray. Father, we’re thankful for your word, and we are convinced that your word is true. So, Father, as we study it today, we pray that your spirit would take it and apply it to our hearts and Lord, that these wouldn’t just be empty words and that we wouldn’t be desiring just to heap more knowledge to ourselves, but that whatever we learn would change the way that we live. That is our desire.

Today.

It is in Christ’s name that we pray. Amen. In Paul’s writing, we are brought up to the threshold of what it means and what our capacity as ambassadors are. And we have been going through very methodically, this role of an ambassador. And we have said, and not only myself, but other pastors down through the.

Weeks.

And months now that the ambassadors. Nobody is born an ambassador. We must be reborn. That an ambassador is an emissary, a representative of a kingdom on foreign lands. So we say that for us to be ambassadors of Christ, we are representing him in foreign territory, oftentimes hostile territory. You ever feel that way when we go out into the world, that people don’t think the way that we think, People don’t talk the way that we talk. People don’t believe the way that we believe. Well, Paul brings this up and he says there’s a reason for that. The reason for it is that their minds, their hearts are veiled. Like pulling the curtain across. You can’t see through that curtain. Like wearing a mask over your face. They can’t see through that mask because it is veiled to them.

And he specifically says who it is that veils, puts that veil over our face, who darkens us and keeps us from seeing the truth of the gospel. And that is the God of this world, not as in the cosmos, but as in the world order. Who is the God of this world order in which we live? Anyone, man? Well, God is God and ruler and king overall. But the Bible tells us that there is a God over this fallen state, that we live in this fallen world. Yes, Satan, you’re right. Absolutely. So the God of this world, Satan, blinds our eyes. But in verse 6, you’ll notice that it is God who removes the veil. And how does he remove the veil?

It says in verse six, God, who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So it is God who shines a light into dark hearts. And where does he shine it? He shines it into hearts to give that light of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, when the Bible refers to heart, if I were to ask you, tell me what a heart is. Anyone tell me what a heart is? It’s a muscle. What else does it do? Yeah, over there pumps blood. What else does it do? It keeps you alive. Yes. So we, in our scientific world that we live, we think of a heart as an organ inside of our body, that without which we can’t live.

But do we always think that? Do we always think of it in those terms? So if you say you’ve got your special little girlfriend or your special little boyfriend and you say, I love them with all my heart, but you just told me that a heart pumps blood. Now come on now, you can’t have it both ways. Or can we? Incidentally, when you tell your youth pastor, I just love that boy or that girl with all my heart, I hope that your youth pastor will tell you to tell your heart to shut up. Right, because you don’t. You just don’t know yet. So. But what is a heart? So biblically. Biblically, the heart is defined differently than what we would look at it under a microscope or in an X ray. It’s different than that to be the.

Heart.

In the Bible, biblically, anyway, it’s the center of not only all of our spiritual activity, but all of our inner operations of human life. It’s the seat of affections, it’s the seat of all of our desires and our motives. That’s what the heart is. It’s the inner man. It’s the secret part of a human being. And so the Bible says there in verse six, that God shines that light into the darkness of our heart. So for us to be ambassadors.

Our.

Hearts must be conformed into the image of Christ. And see, that’s the purpose of our salvation. One of the great purposes of our salvation is that we would be conformed in the image of Christ. And so in order for us to be like Christ, we have to have hearts that are changed to be like Christ. And it’s very necessary for the heart to be changed. As a matter of fact, In Jeremiah, chapter 31, this is in the Old Testament, talking about the days in which we live. Under the New Testament, he said, the days are coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers. Verse 33. This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel.

After those days, I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Under the old covenant, the law of God was written on stone tablets. Do you remember those stories from the book of Exodus?

Right.

God wrote it with the very finger on stone tablets. But he’s saying, under the new covenant, I’m going to write it on the flesh of your heart. I’m going to write it into your heart. Now, does he mean the blood pumper or does he mean our innermost being, the seat of affections, our desires, our wills? Well, I believe it’s the latter. In Exodus, chapter 11. Excuse me, Ezekiel, chapter 11, God, speaking of the new covenant, says, I will give them one heart and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh. So if you wanted to write something, would it be easier to write it on stone or would it be easier to write it in something that is soft and malleable like wax or flesh? Anyone?

Yeah, Flax. Come on now, help me out. It makes this so much easier. And again In Ezekiel, chapter 36, he tells us again in verse 26, I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. What God is talking about here is what we would consider the. The new birth regeneration that God takes out of us. The heart of stone. That’s how we’re all born. The Bible tells us we’re born in trespasses and sin. The Bible tells us that we’re dead. The Bible tells us that we’re blind. The Bible tells us that we’re veiled. But the Bible also says that God will intervene.

And God will take that veiled heart out, that stony heart, that dead heart, and he will put in a heart of flesh. That is what we call the new birth, born again. Have you ever heard that expression, John 3? 3. Jesus says to Nicodemus, except a man be born again, or a young man, or a young lady, except a human being be born again. He cannot see the kingdom of God. Cannot see it. Why? Because we’re veiled. There’s a curtain drawn across our face. There’s a mask. So Second Corinthians, chapter four is describing what happens when someone truly comes to Christ in faith and by faith.

Faith.

It’s not by them doing better, it’s not by them trying harder. It’s not by them cleaning things up. Have you guys had your school pictures yet? Have you done that yet?

Yes.

Did you comb your hair?

No, I wasn’t there.

Lucky.

Lucky.

Did you comb your hair? Did you do your. Did you do your makeup? And did you wear your best clothes and make sure you look good? Yeah. I mean, that’s what we do, right? And I can imagine that maybe one of you, possibly more than one, at least that day, got up in a bad mood, was upset with mom or dad, upset with your teacher, angry, mad at the world, but sat down to take that picture in your best clothes, with your hair, did your makeup on, and a smile from ear to ear. But inside you were just as upset as when you rolled out of bed that morning. That describes a lot of people going around with a big old smile on their face and their hair coiffed just so. So best appearance forward. But inside, there are rotten corpse inside.

They’re angry and anxious and upset. Well, this is because they are trying harder, trying to change their ways. But when we come into true saving faith, God shines a light into our heart, into our soul, and whatever is on the outside flows from whatever comes from the inside that we’re now our outside matches our inside. Do you see a difference there? Think of it like this. Have you ever walked into your bedroom at night with all of the lights off and maybe stepped on something on the floor in your bare feet? Maybe a Lego, right? Legos are dangerous weapons. In the middle of the night, in the dark, with bare feet, Legos, toys, whatever else. Or maybe trying to make your way to your bed, you stubbed your toe on something. You ever done that? That hurts, doesn’t it?

I just did it the other night. And so rather than swear and cuss and throw things around, what I’ve learned to do through the years is to sing Blessed be the Tie that Binds. You ever heard that song? Blessed be the tithe that Binds Our hearts. Well, evidently not. So I Had to sing it through, like, four times before the pain abated the other evening.

That’s how.

And so I was thinking about this. If we would just turn on the light. If we turn on the light, then we can see the little Legos. We can see those sharp corners on the furniture. Everything remains where it was before. We just see it clearly. We just see it differently, don’t we? And that’s how it is. When God shines the light of his own glory into our hearts. He illumines our hearts. We can now see everything clearly. We can see it like he wants us to see it. We can see the beauty of Jesus Christ. We can see the wonder and the splendor of salvation because he has shined the light into the darkness of our heart. Now it’s necessary for God to do this. Jeremiah, chapter 17, verse 9 says that the heart is desperately sick. It’s desperately sick. It is deceitful.

That’s a hard heart. A hard heart, a veiled heart is sick and deceitful. Jesus in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 15 tells us that the heart is the root of all of our problems. In chapter 15, verse 17, Jesus says, Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart. And this defiles a person. For out of the heart comes evil thoughts. Murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone. The root of our problem is our hearts. I said this Sunday in our church. But the heart of man’s problem is the problem of man’s heart. That sin is in our hearts.

And our hearts are hard until he shines the light in, until he makes us alive, until he gives us a heart of flesh. And that’s our great problem, isn’t it? That everything that we do flows from our heart. Imagine with me, if you would, walking on a trail. And this actually happened to me, by the way. Walking a trail, being a little bit thirsty. And you see this mountain brook, this little stream, and this. This little waterfall, and it’s just a babbling brook. And it conjures up in your mind just something of pure water, right? Thinking about that, and you’re thirsty. It’s a hot day, and you think, if I just go up there and put my mouth underneath of that flow, then I’ll have my thirst quenched. But before I did that, I said, it’s a true story.

Before I did that, I got to thinking where I was on that trail. And the trail that I was on meandered around the city waste treatment plant. And the overflow from the waste treatment plant was just winding itself down and dripping and running down and making that little cute little waterfall that just made me so thirsty. And before it ran off into the stream, the river. I don’t know about you, but there’s no amount of money that would prompt me or entice me to drink the runoff water from a waste treatment plant. Whatever flows from the waste treatment plant is corrupted, isn’t it? Yeah. Whatever flows from a perverted and deceitful and slanderous and sick, depraved heart. No matter if it’s good or neutral, it flows from that. It is therefore bad. That’s the state of affairs in our unregenerate state.

That’s where we are. So the problem is our heart. Our heart in the Bible is tied to our intellect. In Matthew 13 it says that we understand with our heart. Proverbs 23:7. As a person thinks in his heart, so he is. Luke 1:66. Mary pondered these things, considered carefully these things in her heart. The heart is attached to our will. In second Corinthians, chapter nine, it gives us give as we are to give, as we decide in our hearts our will right. Acts 5:4. Ananias contrived in his heart to rob God. Romans 6:17, that we are to be obedient from the heart. The heart is also attached to our wishes or our desires. Romans 1:24 says that he gave them up to the lot in their own hearts. Our hearts are tied to our feelings, our emotions.

Psalm 47 says that we have joy in my heart. Proverbs 12:25. Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down. John 16:6. That sorrow filled their hearts. Hatred, jealousy, love, it all flows from the heart. Our hearts are also tied to our conscience. In First John, chapter 3, verse 20, it is the heart that condemns us. Our conscience condemns us. These examples show us biblically our need for a new heart. And this is why we need this light to shine. In Romans 10, it says that we must believe in our hearts. We must believe in our hearts. That’s faith. That’s where faith takes hold. It takes hold in our heart, our innermost being, our person, that hidden man. But if the heart is wicked, everything that flows from that heart will be wicked.

And that’s why John, in John’s Gospel, it says that unless a man be born again, regenerated, he cannot see the kingdom, let alone enter it. And the Apostle Paul says that the light has shone in their hearts to give the light of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Until the light shines, our hearts are veiled, they are hard, and they are desperately wicked. We are spiritually blind, and it is only God who can give spiritual light and spiritual sight. And that’s the miracle of verse six. The miracle of verse six is that the Apostle Paul by divine inspiration compares our recreation, our regeneration, with God’s creation of the universe. In Genesis 1, 2 and 3, it’s it says that God said, let there be light. And there was before this no light. God said, let there be and there was.

That’s what he was referring to in verse 6. It is God who said, let light shine out of darkness. And he said it and it happened, didn’t is the same God who has shown in our hearts to give that light of the knowledge of the glory of God. He is saying there that it is a powerful thing to recreate. You and I stand in amazement when we look at all that God has created just simply by his word. And the apostle is showing us that it is an equally powerful thing to stand in amazement and marvel at every time a human heart is recreated. Has your heart been conformed to Christ as an ambassador? Has the light of Jesus Christ shone into your heart and removed the veil that once shielded you from seeing his beauty and his splendor?

Has that light now enabled you to see the truth? Did you notice that he gives the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ? Has he made Jesus real and beautiful to you? Does Jesus appear to you as a pearl of great price? You remember that parable, that there was a pearl of great price and it was in a. In a field. Man sells everything. Maybe I’m convoluting my parables, but a man sells everything so that he might purchase the pearl of a great price. Got it at a good deal, and it’s worth everything that he ever had. Or a treasure that’s hidden in a field. He sells everything that he has so that he can buy that field, so that he can have the treasure. Christ is worth giving it all for.

And we can’t see that value, we can’t see that worth. Unless God were to shine the light into our heart, to conform us in our hearts, that he would change us, change our thoughts, change our desires, change our wills, change our wishes, change our emotions. To begin to love what God loves and to begin to hate what he hates. You see the Light of the glory, of the knowledge, of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ changes who you are from this day forward. Drop down if you’re still there in Second Corinthians 4:16. So he says, we do not lose heart. We do not become discouraged. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

You see, the God who saves us is the God who equips us, who is the God who keeps us and the God who ultimately delivers us. Day and day by day, he shines the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ into the deepest and darkest recesses of our hearts. And then we see Christ and we must have him. Has your heart been conformed the image of Jesus Christ? You love what he loves, hate what he hates. That’s what an ambassador is. An ambassador’s heart, will, desires, emotions, thoughts, it is all matching and desiring to match those very same things about Christ. Let’s pray. Father, thank you for this time this morning to be able to expound the word of God and to share with these young people. I pray, Father, that these will not be empty words.

That it wouldn’t just be concepts that float around in our minds. That it would be a great instrument that you would use to shine the light into our hearts and to draw us ever closer. And God, if we’ve never been drawn, that you would use these words to do that, if we’ve never been born again, that you would do that in our hearts, that we would simply cry out in faith, lord, forgive me, a sinner. Likewise, if we are saved, that we would be like the apostle in saying, listen nothing is about me. I’ve renounced the disgraceful and underhanded ways and refuse to practice cunning or tamper with your word. Our inner man is being renewed day by day. Thank you for removing the veil. The heart of stone. Thank you for making us alive. Thank you for giving us a heart of flesh.

Thank you for your son who makes it all possible. It’s in his great name that we pray. Amen.

Thank you.