II Corinthians 4:4a

"In whom..."


That is, the lost people of the world who are lost, not because of what they've done, but rather because of their unbelief. Now while we were in Minnesota last week several people showed me my little quote in the fly leaf of their Bible, and it kind of tickles me that people take note of these things. But I've had it on the board several times in the past, and the quote goes something like this. "We are not sinners because of sins we commit but rather we sin because we are sinners." Now all that means is that we are born with that old Adamic nature, and that Adamic nature knows only one thing, and that's to rebel against the things laid down by God Himself. So the human's natural tendency is to listen to the old Adam. So, consequently, we become sinners, and it isn't because of what we've done. It's because of what we are.


Now the same way here. The people who are lost are not lost because they went out and got drunk one night. They're not lost because they cheated or stole, or committed immorality, but rather they are lost because they are born in sin as children of Adam and they have refused the remedy; which, of course, is faith in the finished work of the Cross. And Paul is constantly throwing out that the Cross has completed everything. We were just talking at break time about how the Devil blinds people and I think that this is just another ploy of the god of this world who transforms himself into an angel of light, because he won't do this clothed in the black robes of magic. But rather the Devil does this clothed in bright lights, as the angel of light, and that is he is keeping the world that has any interest in Scripture in the Four Gospel accounts.


I think it is so frightening that people are not getting away from Christ's earthly ministry, and getting into the fact that it was His death, His burial, and the fact that He arose victorious over sin and death, and now we are on this side of the Cross. We are not back there in Christ's earthly ministry, and we're going to see that specifically in the next chapter. So we have to constantly force ourselves almost because the tendency is to just study mostly in Christ's earthly ministry. But what did Jesus say in Matthew 24:14?


Matthew 15:24

"But he (Christ) answered and said, `I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.'"


Romans 15:8

"Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision (Jews only) for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers;" (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.)


So remember the Four Gospels were only to Israel and that was under the Law of Moses. Now looking at verse 4 again.


II Corinthians 4:4

"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 there is another point. You have no idea how many people are asking the question, "Well, Who is Christ?" A lot of people are confused. Some have the idea that Christ never really amounted to anything until He was born at Bethlehem. They do not have the understanding that Jesus of Nazareth was the manifestation in the flesh of the Creator God of Genesis 1:1. I show that when we teach the Book of Genesis that Christ, as we know Him in the New Testament, was the Creator of the Old Testament.


John 1:1-3

"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 any thing made that was made."


John 1:14a

"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,..."