The Devil's Blindfold
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3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
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.
Satan is the god of this world, that is of the system of evil that we see dominating the globe.
And he has blindfolden all who do not believe. I want to talk about The Devils blindfold.
14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
The condition of the Unsaved
The condition of the Unsaved
The unsaved natural man is in a deep sleep. His spiritual senses are not awake; They discern neither spiritual good nor evil.
The eyes of his understanding are closed, he sees nothing.
Clouds and darkness continually rest upon them; for he lies in the valley of the shadow of death.
Having no spiritual senses at all, the sleeping sinner is in stupid ignorance of his condition.
He is utterly ignorant of God.
He is totally a ignorant to the law of God.
He is totally ignornat to the absolute neccesity of holiness:
14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
The Consequences of this Sleep
The Consequences of this Sleep
1: False Security
1: False Security
And for this very reason, because he is fast asleep, he is, in some sense, at rest.
Because he is blind, he is also secure.
The darkness which covers him on every side, keeps him in a kind of peace - a worldy tranquility.
He sees not that he stands on the edge of the pit, therefore he fears it not. He cannot tremble at the danger he does not know.
He has not understanding enough to fear. Like a child than has never seen or heard of a firearm but stumbles upon his fathers, he has no fear of this wepon.
Why is it that he is in no dread of God?
Because he is totally ignorant of him:
Either his foolish heart is saying: “There is no God.”
Or
His decieved heart is saying: “God is merciful.”
He is in no dread of the vengeance denounced against those who obey not the blessed law of God, because he understands it not.
If he is a Luke warm spiritual man then he thinks that Christ came to “destroy the Law and the Prophets;”
He thinks o save his people in, not from their sins; to bring them to heaven without holiness.
2: Ignorance of Death
2: Ignorance of Death
He is secure, because he is utterly ignorant of himself.
He believes foolishly than death is in his power and cannot creep up on him.
3: False Joy
3: False Joy
From the same ignorance of himself and God, there may sometimes arise, in the natural man, a kind of joy, in congratulating himself upon his own wisdom and goodness:
And what the world calls joy, he may possess.
He may have pleasure in various kinds;
Either in gratifying the desires of the flesh, or the desire of the eye, or the pride of life;
Particularly if he has large possessions; if he enjoys an affluent fortune.
If he is rich then his money gives him the power to cloth himself in fine luxuries which sweeten the sleep of the lost.
A unsaverd poor man sleeps, but sleeps on the hard ground, but an unsaved richman sleep much deeper on a soft matress of luxury and if often harder to wake up.
24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
4: False Freedom
4: False Freedom
It in not surprising,
Ignorant of danger, dosed with the false joy, blined to God wrath, than the unsaved thinks that they are free.
This is the devils blindfold.
His ignorance, his false joy and his false freedom.
For all this time he is the servant of sin.
For all this time he is the servant of sin.
He commits sin, more or less, day by day.
Yet he is not troubled, he feels no condemnation.
When he does do evil, by the world’s standards he satisfys his gulity with, everyonebody makes mistakes.
When he sisn acording to the church standards he satisfies his guilt with calling out christians foir their hypocrasy.
Such is the state of every natural man;
How does the blind fold come off?
How does the blind fold come off?
Firstly is not man that removes the blindfold it is God and the method of removal is the Law.
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
By providence, or by his word. God touches the heart of him that lay asleep in darkness and in the shadow of death.
This is not a gentle awakening. He is terribly shaken out of his sleep, and awakes into a consciousness of his danger.
Perhaps in a moment, perhaps by degrees, the eyes of his understanding are opened, and for the first time in his life he sees what state he is in.
A Horrid light breaks in upon his soul - it is not the light of God’s love, is the light that comes from the fires of Hell, from a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
If he has a christuan upbringing for “expereince” He at last sees the loving, the merciful God is also “a consuming fire”.
That he is a just God and a terrible,
Rendering to every man according to his words, entering into judgment with the ungodly for every idle word, yea, and for the imaginations of the heart.
He finnay understands:
13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Awake and Naked and Afraid
Awake and Naked and Afraid
His awakned state causes all the guiult of his sin to come crushing down on him, he becomes like is first parents in the garden of eden.
10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
Here his pleasing dream end.
His joy now vanishes as a cloud.
Pleasures, once loved, delight no more.
The shadows of happiness flee away, and sink into oblivion:
He feels sorrow of heart for the blessings he has lost, and the curse which is come upon him:
remorse for having thus destroyed himself, and despised his own mercies;
fear, from a lively sense of the wrath of God,
and of the consequences of his wrath,
of the punishment which he has justly deserved, and which he sees hanging over is head;
—fear of death, as being to him the gate of hell, the entrance of death eternal;—
fear of the devil, the executioner of the wrath and righteous vengeance of God;
—fear of men, who, if they were able to kill his body, would thereby plunge both body and soul into hell;
And above all Fear of God.
An Attempted Resolution.
An Attempted Resolution.
This awaking is followed by a resolution. As a criminal can plead with the judge with a promise to do better, so oftren the awaknened sinner thinks in his mind.
Now he truly desires to break loose from sin, and begins to struggle with it. But though he strive with all his might, he cannot conquer:
Sin is mightier than he.
He would fain escape; but he is so fast in prison, that he cannot get forth.
He resolved against sin, but yet sins on:
He sees the snare, and abhors, and runs into it.
“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
His Final Hope
His Final Hope
“He cried unto the Lord in his trouble, and God delivers him out of his distress.”
His eyes are opened wider and through his sin, guilt and shame is sees another light shinning through.
It is Jesus. The redeemer. The saviuor of our souls.
6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,