I want to talk to you this morning
about the veil removed. And if you would turn first of
all to Exodus 34, Exodus 34. Read two portions of text or
two texts this morning. But first of all, I want to go
there. Exodus 34 in verse 27. Exodus 34, 27. And the Lord said
unto Moses, write thou these words, for after the tenor of
these words, I have made a coven with thee, with Israel. And he was there with the Lord
40 days and 40 nights, He did neither eat bread nor
drink water. And he wrote upon the tables
the words of the covenant, the 10 commandments. And it came
to pass when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two
tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from
the Mount that Moses realized not that the skin of his face
shone while he talked with him. And when Aaron and all the children
saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shined, and they were
afraid to come near to him. And Moses called unto them, and
Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him,
and Moses talked with them. And afterward, all the children
of Israel came nigh, and he gave them in commandment all that
the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. Until Moses had
done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. But when
Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took the
veil off until he came out. And he came out and spake unto
the children of Israel that which he was commanded. And the children
of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face
shone, shined. And Moses put the veil upon his
face again until he went in to speak with him. Now, without
comment, turn to 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 6. We'll begin there. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and we'll
start at verse 6. Let's begin verse six with God. God also has made us able ministers
of the New Testament, not of the letter, not of the letter,
but of the spirit. For the letter killeth, but the
spirit gives life. But if the ministration of death
written and engraven in stones, that's where we were in Exodus.
was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly
behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance,
which glory was to be done away, how shall not the ministration
of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation
be glory, much more does the ministration of righteousness
exceed in glory. For even that which was made
glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory
that excelth. For if that which is done away
was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.
Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness
of speech and not as Moses. See that? which put a veil over his face,
that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end
of that which is abolished." Christ came, fulfilled the law,
and it's gone. We're dead to the law. But even into this day, when
Moses is read, And that means Exodus and Leviticus, okay? When Moses is read the law, the
veil is upon their heart. We'll talk about who there is
in a minute. Nevertheless, when it shall turn
to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that
spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty. But we all with open face beholding
as in a glass, the glory of the Lord are changed into the same
image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord. In the first part of this chapter,
chapter 3 in 2 Corinthians, Paul relates the exceeding glory. He sets forth the exceeding glory
of the new covenant and explains the power of that covenant that's
revealed in the preaching of the gospel. All of us know that
the gospel is said to be and is declared to be the power of
God. It's the dynamite, that's what
that means, power. Dunamos, dynamite of salvation. And here it's shown in 2 Corinthians
to be specifically that. The distinction between what we read in Exodus,
the law, and what we read in 2 Corinthians is as obvious as
the difference between life and death itself. And that's the
illustration that Paul uses here. Paul says in verse 12, seeing
that we have this hope, We use great plainness or boldness of
speech. Ministers and teachers, if you
will, I don't know the difference, but ministers of the gospel are
to use this great plainness or clearness of speech. They shouldn't
put a veil upon their faces like Moses That's what Moses did,
to obscure and to darken those things which they should make
plain. The gospel, I hope I can make
this clear. Lord help me. The gospel is a
much clearer dispensation or distribution than the law. The things of God are not revealed
in the New Testament, as types and shadows and metaphors and
similes and all those things. It's just plainly spoken. And though, although the Israelites
couldn't look to the end of what was commanded in the law and
what's now abolished, we can. We see the meaning of these types
and shadows of the law and the Old Testament as being put away, as being fulfilled
and accomplished by Christ. These types and shadows, we see
the meaning of them in seeing Christ That veil is taken away. It's taken away. And we're dead
to the law in Christ. Christ who was to come in Moses'
day, if you will permit that, has come. And we see the fulfillment
of all those things in him. Christ was and is the end of
the lawful righteousness to all that believe. We all know that.
He was and he is the one who Moses and all the prophets pointed
to and wrote of. Now in her text, Paul makes a
distinct contrast between the ministration of the word of God
between the law and the gospel. I want you to see and note very
carefully, Paul is by no means in these verses speaking slightly
or diminishing the Old Testament scripture as if the whole word
of God is not equally sacred. That's one book. That's one book. Old and new. And while it's true
that the Bible is distinguished by different names, being the
Old Testament and the New Testament, it's so that we have a better
understanding of the different dispensations or administrations
under which the church has lived. They're one and the same. It's
just different administrations or ministries of the gospel. One says he's coming, the other
says he's been here and he will be coming. The church itself is one. Why
would there be... I've had trouble with this over
the years and This book is the everlasting covenant. What am I looking for? A revelation
of the everlasting covenant from the day that God Almighty promised
Adam that he was gonna bruise Satan's head. Bruise his head. The word of God is one, the church
is one, and both of these testaments, if you will, have ministered
and ministered to the one church of Christ with equal blessedness,
if you will, according to their different distributions. We can
find everything in the New Testament by type and figure and simile
in the Old Testament, and this reveals the Old Testament. And
by grace, Noah was saved. What made him different? The
whole human race was evil, only evil, continually. And he was
just like everybody else. But he found grace. God revealed to him the end of
the world. of the law in the fulfillment
of the Lamb of God. He knew that Lamb of God, and
he saw that Lamb of God, just like God Almighty revealed to
Moses on that mountain. He saw the end of it all, and
he just lit up, so to speak. The title New Testament doesn't
mean in the least anything new. There's nothing new there. Our
God's the same yesterday, today, and forever, and it doesn't mean
it contains anything new as pertaining to the covenant of grace, which
is described as an everlasting covenant that was founded between
all the persons of the Godhead before the world ever began,
was ever formed, ever existed, the heavens, And neither is this
revelation of this covenant, New Testament, what they call
the New Covenant, it's not new, it's not new. This covenant came
immediately upon the fall of Adam, as I've said, and it was
made known to Adam in the garden, the very first promise that God
made to him after he fell. contained within itself. It wrapped
up every other promise and all the fullness and all of his sufficiency,
and it contained everything under the law by precept, by type,
and by sacrifice or shadow. It preached Christ in a figure
from front to back. And it did so just as much as
the Gospel does, what we see in the Gospel, in substance. Shadows became substance. And
if the Spirit of God was present, the shadow of those things in
the Old Testament became substance to them. They believed God by
His grace. The New Testament is called such
to distinguish it from the Old Testament because it now holds
forth what had been promised all along. All along. As newly accomplished and fulfilled. That's the reason it's new. It's
newly accomplished. It's fulfilled. Newly fulfilled. And it completes our God's revelation
of grace to His church and people. When you read the last letter
of the last book, the Lord shut it down. Shut it down. The terms describing the law
and the gospel are so plain that to preach them in a manner that
diminishes that difference or doesn't make it clear would be
a denial of the truth. In the scriptures, the preacher
of the gospel is referred to as a son of thunder. Why? Oh, in the New Testament, they're
called sons of thunder. That simply means that he's not
about the business of making the law and the gospel cooperative. You know, believe Christ, but
you gotta do this. No, no. In the salvation of God's
people. Verse 12, seeing then this, we
use, seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness
of speech. There's a difference made here
between the letter and the spirit in verse six, if you wanna see
that. These terms, the letter and the
spirit, are not meant to say there's any difference in the
scripture writing. One being of the letter and the
other being of the spirit. I'll try to explain. The gospel is as much written
in the letter as the law. In verse six, that phrase, the
letter killeth, I want you to notice something here. It's in
context. Have you ever noticed this? The
letter killeth is in context of the new covenant, the New
Testament. What does that mean? It means
that both the letter of the law and the gospel are equally the
word's letters. And they both kill. And it means
that God's word the law or the gospel, what we term the law
and the gospel, in the mirror letter, without the quickening
influence of God's spirit, doesn't minister to life, whether it's
the law or the gospel. I stress this as much. applicable to the mere written
letter of the gospel without the Spirit as the law. Our Lord said, it is the Spirit
that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing.
The words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they're life. And where that is non-existent,
all there is is the letter, whether it's the letter of the law or
the letter of the new covenant. There's a veil over our face.
And Paul further instructs by adding a striking distinction
there too, between the effect of the law and that of the gospel. Again, in verse six, he calls
the ministry of the law by Moses, the ministry of death, and the
gospel by Christ, the ministration of life. The law could produce nothing
but death because it condemned the whole race of Adam. Now think
about this. Even the children of God, were
condemned having been born in the stock, in the lineage of
Adam. Every one of us been there. All
men came under the condemnation of it, but in Christ, the law
is honored and all the seed of Christ are considered holy in
him. That's the ministry of righteousness
and the ministration of God's spirit given life. verse nine
and verse six, if you want to compare those two. The New Testament,
the gospel is a dispensation. In other words, giving me great
consternation in the past. It's not a period of time, it's
a ministry, an administration. I just happened to think, President
Biden, his administration. His dispensation, His ministration. That's what that word is saying
there, ministration or dispensation. The gospel dispensation, ministration,
far exceeds the glory of the law, even if there'd been a possibility
of obedience to the law. Now I want to consider this veil
for just a few minutes. I'll read you this, Isaiah 25
verse seven says, and he, God, Christ, will destroy in this
mountain the face of the covering cast over all people and the
veil that is spread over all nations. Now look at verse 12
in 2 Corinthians there. Seeing then that we have such
hope, we use great plainness of speech, not like Moses, not
as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of
Israel could not steadfastly look to the end, that is Christ,
that he's the end of that which is abolished, which is the law.
If a preacher wanted to hide the gospel, don't misunderstand me, if a
preacher wanted to hide the gospel and not use plainness of speech,
he'd be like Moses who veiled his face to hide the glory that
he knew and understood. The understanding that Moses
possessed was that the people couldn't look upon the glory
of the new covenant, the gospel of the law fulfilled in Christ.
You know why? Because it would mean doing away
with the law and they couldn't tolerate that. They couldn't
tolerate that. They couldn't endure it or support
it. Seeing the law abolished, even
though only revealed them as transgressors. Now you may think that's strange,
but I'll tell you what else is strange. The blindness of the
human race is a strange thing that adamantly, adamantly embraces
only that which kills or condemns and is done away with, but that's
the reason for the veil that we've seen in verse 13. In verse 13. Verse 14 makes it
clear that the veil was according to purpose. Verse 14 says their minds were
blinded. Their minds were blinded. The veil there is metaphorical
and it's symbolic or it's figurative or it's a simile because it rests,
a veil, a spiritual veil rests over the eyes and the heart.
What you see, you know, is what we love, what we want, what we
desire. It rests upon the eyes and it
covers the heart of the unbeliever. And I know that I have thought in
the past, and yes, there is some reference to the Jews here, that
veil applying to them. There's some reference to the
Jews. who cling to that old law of sacrifices and ceremony, but
it has a wider efference to every son of Adam who by nature believe
that they can establish a righteousness that will put them in good standing
with God and deny that Christ is the end of the law. When the Old Testament is read,
the veil that God has hung over any unbeliever's heart, is not
taken away, that veil is only removed in Christ. And to this
day, when Moses is read, the veils upon their heart, any unbeliever
I'm saying now, scripture speaks of when Moses is read, And that
narrows the Old Testament to the law of Moses being Exodus
and Leviticus, as I've said. But those books speak of Christ
on every page, every page. And the unbelieving religious
heart can't seem, it's totally blinded to His glory, to Christ's
glory. In verse 16, look at that. It, it refers to the heart turning
to the Lord, the word it. But it's better read as the heart
being acted upon rather than acting, if you search out the
language. The Lord turns the heart to himself
just as he did with Lydia when he opened her heart. Men and
women put great confidence in the power of their own heart
to believe. Oh, there's some goodness there.
There's some goodness there. I can believe when I want to.
I'll wait till I have a little fun. But it's a stony heart. It's a stony heart. And it's
got to be replaced with a heart of flesh by God's spirit, period. And when the Lord turns the heart,
that veil is lifted up. Isn't it, Chris? Yes, sir. Faith embraces Christ from the
heart. And when the Lord turns the heart
and the veils removed, faith embraces Christ and that form
of doctrine which was delivered you. Romans 6, verse 17, Paul
said, but God be thanked that you were the servants of sin.
but you've obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was
delivered to you. And when the veil is taken away,
the believer sees the glory of the new covenant, the covenant
of grace, the covenant that was made sure by the blood of our
Lord from all eternity, from the very start. And verse 17
reveals specifically how the hearts turn from death to life.
Man can't do it on his own. The Holy Spirit turns it. And
the Lord, our Lord is that Spirit. He said, I will pray the Father
and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with
you forever. Even the Spirit of truth, now
listen, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him
not, neither knoweth him, but you know him, for he dwells with
you and shall be in you." And we all know that that's Christ
in you, the hope of glory. All the fullness of God dwells
in the body of Christ. And where the Spirit is, there's
liberty. Freedom from that which kills,
freedom from condemnation, freedom from bondage, freedom from the
law. You're free. And last of all, verse 18. What's said there in verse 18
can only be truly understood in the context in which we find
it. Don't read it by itself. It won't mean much. The context
is the veil removed from the heart and the eyes moving from
the old covenant to the new, from law to grace, from Moses
to Christ, from bondage to freedom, from blindness to sight. And
with the veil taken away, we with an uncovered face, we see
in a glass the glory of the Lord as it's revealed in that covenant
of grace where Christ is revealed. And it's no less so of those
old saints and those of our day. And seeing that and beholding
that we're changed. That's the only way it can be
expressed, we're changed. How? Only by the spirit of God. The
Spirit of the Lord changes us. We're changed into what we see. That image in that glass. That
image is the glory of God as in the old covenant. Our eyes
saw us in the new covenant. Our eyes are on Christ. And that's how we're changed.
That's how we move from the law. to by the spirit of God, to new
eyes in Christ. And with that vision, that veil
has been lifted. He must increase and we must
decrease. I hope the Lord will use that.