{"id":12847,"date":"2016-08-17T01:38:36","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T06:38:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/a-deadly-blindness\/"},"modified":"2016-08-17T01:38:36","modified_gmt":"2016-08-17T06:38:36","slug":"a-deadly-blindness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/a-deadly-blindness\/","title":{"rendered":"A DEADLY BLINDNESS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b>2 CORINTHIANS 4:1\u20136<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><i>But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded.\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><i>(2 Cor. 4:3\u20134)<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>Every Sunday people throughout the world stream into churches to hear the proclamation of God\u2019s Word. In those churches that are faithful to the orthodox teaching of the Gospel, people hear the Good News of Christ week after week. Yet, to the frustration of many ministers, many people leave the worship services unchanged. They leave in the same condition they had come\u2014blind to the truth of salvation in Christ\u2014even though they had heard the truth proclaimed by a faithful servant of God. Why do they remain blind? Didn\u2019t Paul say that the veil has been lifted and the truth of God in Christ has been revealed?<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>While it is true that the revelation of Christ has been revealed in the Gospel, the veil that covers the darkened minds of fallen men remains in place until they turn to the Lord by the power of His Spirit. Until that time, until God commands \u201clight to shine out of the darkness\u201d and give the \u201clight of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,\u201d sinners will remain on the path to perdition.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>Paul teaches in 2 Corinthians 4 that some people in Corinth remained blinded to his teaching of the Gospel because they were lost. The false teachers who insisted on lying and distorting the Word of God were darkened in their understanding, blinded by their sin and the power of Satan. The Gospel, in and of itself, has no power unless God gives them the power to see the light of truth. Still, this impotency is not the result of a faulty message, but is due to the fallen nature of man. Just as the sun does not cease to be the sun simply because the blind do not see it, so the power, truth, and authority of the Gospel do not cease to shine in the world because men are blinded to it.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>Until men are freed from the bondage of sin and of Satan, who blinds their minds so they cannot see the glory of Christ and thus be saved, they will perish. No matter how many sermons they hear, no matter how many evangelistic crusades they attend, until the glory of God as revealed in Christ illuminates their minds and the Holy Spirit regenerates their hearts, they will die in their unbelief. God must shine into their hearts to give them true, saving knowledge of Christ, without which there is no hope.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b>CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'>Proverbs 25\u201327<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'>2 Corinthians 7<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b>WEEKEND<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'>Proverbs 28\u201331<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'>2 Corinthians 8<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:   18.0pt;line-height:normal'>Ministers, family members, and friends of those   who refuse to believe the Gospel often become frustrated. What would you say   to encourage someone who is despairing over the hardness of a loved one? Who   changes men hearts, the preacher or God? Pray for one unbeliever today that   God will open his or her eyes to the truth.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'><i>For   further study: Matt. 11:25\u201330; 16:13\u201320 \u2022 John 1:1\u201313; 12:27\u201336<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b>WEEKEND<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2 CORINTHIANS 4:1\u20136 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded.\u2026 (2 Cor. 4:3\u20134). Every Sunday people throughout the world stream into churches to hear the proclamation of God\u2019s Word. In those churches that are faithful to the orthodox &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/a-deadly-blindness\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;A DEADLY BLINDNESS&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12847\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}