Our text this morning is found
in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. But I'm going to begin reading
with some comment in chapter 2. So we'll begin in 2 Corinthians
2 verse 14 because I believe it goes with what Paul is dealing
with in chapter 3. So 2 Corinthians 2 verse 14. Now thanks be unto God, which
always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest
the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. So from this verse already we
see who our victory is, who our triumphant Lord of Glory is,
it's the Lord Jesus Christ. God always causeth us to have
the victory in Christ. It's in Christ and we are victorious
in Him. Even when we're down and brought
low, in Christ it is It is a triumph because he draws his people near
to himself. Now what knowledge is Paul speaking
of? What is the knowledge of God
that we are spreading? What is this knowledge that we're
spreading among the people? Well, it's the knowledge of Jesus
Christ. He is the knowledge of God. It's
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the knowledge that Peter
speaks of at the last verse of his second epistle, chapter 3,
verse 18. He tells us, grow in grace and
in the knowledge Christ grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Jesus Christ is the sweet
savor of God's knowledge of God's wisdom of what he's teaching
you child of God who look to him and seek him and desire to
to know him and God maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge, Jesus
Christ, by us in every place. And so Paul is speaking about
the preaching of the gospel of Christ. That's the spreading
of the savor of God's knowledge, the preaching of Jesus Christ. Now he adds this for context
in verse 15. For we are unto God a sweet savor
of Christ. We smell of Christ. He is the
scent which drips upon our hands, upon our heads, upon our feet. It's the scent, the sweet savor
of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. And so you see here Paul saying
wherever we go, our word is the preaching of Christ crucified. We are declaring unto you Christ
Jesus the Lord. We're declaring what God has
accomplished for us in his darling son Jesus Christ. Now when we preach him, there
are some who are dead and remain dead. To them, this savor of
Christ is the smell of death. It's death to them. They don't
delight in it. But to others who live, not by
anything they've done, but by the power of God to them, it
is life. It's life unto the living. And so Paul, just as Paul declared
to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 1.18, when he said, the preaching
of the cross, the preaching of Christ crucified is to them that
perish, It's foolishness. It's repulsive to them. They
find no peace, no joy, no satisfaction in that. And then they perish. It's foolishness. But unto us
which are saved. With us which are saved, it is
the power of God. In other words, God's power is
communicated unto you that hear it, So it's not waiting for you
to hear it, you hear it because of his power that makes you to
hear it and makes his word effectual in your hearts to rejoice, to
smell the sweet scent, the sweet savor of Christ, made precious
unto your souls. And he goes on and says, and
who's sufficient for these things? And that sense is, who's worthy
of this? Who's earned this? Who's done
anything to qualify themselves for such precious, wonderful
truths, for such precious power of God? Who's qualified themselves
for this? Who's sufficient for these things?
And what he's saying is, we're but servants. We're called of
God to minister Christ unto the people, wherever we go, to spread
this knowledge wherever we go. It's not of us, it's not because
I'm special, it's not because I'm any different from you brethren.
No different at all. I am the same weak man, I am
the same man of various passions and lusts in the flesh. I'm just
like you. There's nothing special about
me, but you that hear Christ, and rejoice in Christ, that's
the power of God made effectual in your hearts. For, verse 17,
we are not as many which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity,
but as of God and the sight of God speak we in Christ. In other words, that's another
confirmation that our ministry Christ. That's what God has given
to us. It's to minister Jesus Christ
to the people of God. He's the knowledge God has us
to be spreading forth, to declare, to proclaim to the people he
gathers to hear it. Paul summed up our ministry,
I'm just going to quote from 1 Corinthians 4 verse 1, he said,
let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ. We're the ministers of Christ.
We're not the ministers of religion. We're not the ministers of Moses.
We're the ministers of Christ. Not the ministers of the flesh.
We're ministers of the Spirit, ministering Jesus Christ unto
the people. And, he says, we're stewards
of the mysteries of God. And he calls them mysteries of
God because they are not known by the natural man. And the natural
man doesn't know these mysteries, he cannot know these mysteries,
even if he reads this book from cover to cover, every day from
it, every day, goes through it every year, he will not understand
the mysteries of God, except God reveal it to him in the new
man. By this flesh we will not know
the true and living God. And there's a lot of people who
think just because they read the Bible and do read the Bible
that they know the salvation of God and they're yet dead in
trespasses and sins. They may have improved things
in their life. They may look good on the outside, but they
are yet dead in trespasses and sins. It's a mystery because
it must be revealed, revealed unto us by the power of God. And that power, brethren, is
Christ. He's our ministry. We're ministering
the knowledge of God, which is Jesus Christ, the hope of glory
in you. He's made us witnesses of these
things. What things? Of his sufferings.
of His death, of His burial, and resurrection. We're administering
that word to you because that's the word, the Savior of Christ,
which the Spirit of God uses to bless the people of God, to
teach you. Now, we come to 2 Corinthians
3, and here Paul continues to show that our ministry He drills
into a little more. Our ministry is not the old covenant
of the Law of Moses. It's not the plainness of the
letter here that saves. Our ministry is Christ and doing
all we can to show you Christ. To bring you to see your need
of Christ and to show you the sufficiency of Christ according
to the mystery of God now revealed unto us. So it's not what we
preach, but whom we preach. We preach Christ, because that's
what the Spirit is pleased to bless to the hearts of His people.
So 2 Corinthians 3, 1 now. Having said what we're called
to do in chapter 2, Paul asks, now do we begin again to commend
ourselves? Are we just bragging to you?
Are we just puffing up our chests before you? Or need we as some
others epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation
from you? Am I saying this so I can get
something from you? Something according to the flesh
from you, some praise from you, or some physical thing, your
riches, or something like that from you? No, he's saying God
has already knit our hearts together in Christ. I don't need anything
from you. That's not why I'm saying this,
Paul says. Verse two, ye are our epistle, written in our hearts,
known and read of all men. And then he clarifies this, because
he doesn't want it to sound like he's saying that Paul's boasting
in anything. He says, I'm not boasting here.
This isn't my work. So he clarifies it, saying, verse
three, for as much as ye are manifestly declared, to be the
Epistle of Christ, ministered by us. We are ministering Christ
to you. You are the Epistle of Christ,
ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit
of the Living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables
of the heart. Now from this verse, I want to
speak of four truths that are declared here. Four truths in
verse three here that bless my heart and will bless the hearts
of the people of God here. Four truths. So one. Paul says,
the people of God are manifestly declared. You're manifestly declared. Now, this is the same word. It's
actually one word in the Greek. As I understand it, it's one
word there. And it was used back in 2 Corinthians 2.14, where
Paul said, where God maketh manifest. So manifestly declared, God maketh
manifest, the Savior of His knowledge in every place. So it's one word. And so Paul's saying, we minister,
we spread this knowledge of the sweet savor of Christ wherever
we go, preaching this gospel. But it's God that makes it effectual
in the hearts of his people. It's God that maketh manifest
the fruit of his doing, the work of his doing in your hearts that
hear and believe Christ. So God's doing it and He's manifesting
the evidence that Christ gave His life for you. That this work,
this redemption is done in your heart. You believe because Christ
has given you that faith. He's given you life from the
dead, so that when you read this, this word isn't just dead words
on a page. It's, oh, he tells me I have
to do this this way, so let me go and do that, and then maybe
God will receive me. No, you hear the mystery that
Christ is all my salvation. It's not do and live. It's look
and live. Believe Christ and live. It's him who saves. And so the
evidence is that any fruit you see in you is God's work. It's God's fruit in you. And
so in the child of God, he maketh manifest those whom he has redeemed
with the blood, the precious blood of Jesus Christ, his son. He's manifesting that. He's making
it known by revealing in his people faith and hope and love. He's bearing the fruits of the
Spirit in his people who love Christ, who love God for what
he's done for them in Christ. And so this is described in the
scriptures as a new birth. It's a new birth. It's not in
the oldness, the way we came to God when yet in death and
in darkness, just trying to improve a few things, being a little
more disciplined and a little more focused in what we do. That's
not salvation, just trying a little harder. That's not salvation.
We must be made new creatures. Christ said to Nicodemus, you
must be born again, because your first birth is death. There's
no life in it. You must be born again. And so
he does this through the sowing of the faithful preaching of
the gospel, which he sends to you for your good, for your blessing,
that he may manifest this salvation in your hearts. So he does that
through the preaching of the gospel, and then the Spirit takes
it and glorifies Christ in your heart, showing you Christ. Christ so that you stop looking
to yourself and you start looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the message which the
Spirit of God blesses. He doesn't bless just the reading
of this Word and trying to find your righteousness in doing what
it says. That's not the message the Spirit
blesses. The Spirit blesses the preaching
of Christ. the sweet Savior of Christ. Our
Lord said in John 16, 14, He, the Spirit of God, whom I will
send unto you when I am raised from the dead and return to the
Father, I'll send the Spirit, and He shall glorify me. Not you, me, not me, Christ. Christ Jesus shall be glorified
by the Spirit, for He shall receive of mine and show it unto you. And so it's in the preaching
of Christ that the Spirit attends and takes the things of Christ
and shows them to you by the Spirit, in the power of God,
the glory of God, showing you Jesus Christ is the salvation
of God, the very righteousness of God, delighting your heart
in Him. That's the Spirit's work. I can't
make that. All I can do is preach the gospel. That's what I'm called to do.
Just preach the gospel and leave it to the spirit to make it alive
in your hearts. Paul said to the Galatians concerning
this new birth, he said, in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth
anything nor uncircumcision but a new creature. A new creature. In other words, it doesn't matter
if you're coming from being a Jew or you're coming from being a
Gentile. That has no bearing on your standing before God. It's a new creature that he receives.
It's a new creature that he makes in us. He gives us a new birth,
living souls in Christ Jesus. And so he's talking about the
power of God, which is manifest or revealed in us through the
preaching of the gospel. That's what he's going to bless.
So we must be born again. And that's not something that
we do. I know the world and religion speaks of being born again as
something that you and I do. It's not something that we do.
We don't get ourselves saved. We are saved by the power of
God. If we're saved, if we're His,
we're going to come out of that darkness and come into the light
because we've been saved by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.
And we were saved even in eternity past when we were chosen of the
Father and given to the Son. to save, to redeem. And so we're
just coming to a knowledge of what he's done. And it's a sweet
knowledge for you that hear and believe him. It's a sweet savor
of Christ. And it's a spiritual work which
God manifests through the ministry of the gospel of Christ. And his power is effectually
seen. It springs forth and it's seen
by his work when he calls us out of darkness. He that doeth
truth cometh to the light. And who is the truth? Christ.
You that believe Christ, you come into the light, which is
Christ, that his deeds may be made manifest There's that same
word, maketh manifest that his deeds may be manifest that they
are wrought in God. God is the one who's manifesting
his child, calling you out of death, calling you out of dead
religion, calling you away from the whore of Babylon, into the
arms of Christ, into the light of Christ, into the joy and rejoicing
of Christ. And so the minister of the gospel,
me in this particular case here, all I'm doing is just writing
the same word over and over and over again, which is Christ.
I'm just writing Jesus Christ. That's all I can do. That's all
I'm called to do is to preach Christ unto you, trusting that
the Spirit makes it effectual in your hearts, that the Spirit
forms Christ in the heart where He dwells in you by faith and
conforms you to the likeness of Christ's death and Christ's
resurrection. So just through preaching Christ,
just spreading that savor of His knowledge, the Spirit lays
it to the heart. The Spirit has prepared the heart
of them that are His to receive this Word. And it goes, and it
springs forth. It springs forth. In my garden,
I had recently laid down a good batch of compost that I had made
for two years. And at the end, when it was all
spread out there, I threw out, I had some old wheat berry seed
that I like to put out as a cover crop. And I threw it out very
late, but I got it out there about two weeks ago. And for
about five days, nothing seemed to happen. And I was worried
maybe the seed was dead because it sat in my garage for so long.
And I was worried and all of a sudden on the, I guess it was
around the sixth day, it had rained and everything, and boop,
up popped this little sprout of bright green, because it's
winter wheat, so it was bright green, where it's just popping
up now and it's growing. And you can see there's life,
life there, it lives, and that's what the Lord does. He sows his
seed and boop, up pops that living, that living seed, that mark that
he maketh manifest, that he's, saying, this one is mine. This
is a living soul. And that living soul believes
Christ, trusts Christ, and rejoices in him. And so this new birth,
it's the spirit of God who regenerates spiritually dead sinners to now
be alive unto God, to hear his word, to rejoice in him, to bear
all the sufferings of Christ in them with joy and rejoicing
growing and being led of the Spirit and growing up into Christ
in the new man getting stronger and stronger and stronger all
by his ministering that same word which gave you life at the
first is the same word that we eat all the way through with
the Lord giving us understanding of what Christ has done more
and more, showing him more beautifully unto us. And so it's a new birth. And the important thing is that
we cannot get ourselves saved by the light of nature. By sitting
down and reading this, we're not going to understand these
things of God. God's going to reveal the mysteries
of Christ unto us. And so Every grace is implanted
in you by the Spirit of God who writes every line, every word,
every letter, such that you are the epistles of Christ, not the
epistles of Moses, not the epistles of religion, not in the epistles
of man and man's traditions and man's wisdom. You are the epistles
of Jesus Christ, and every fruit you bear is his fruit in you. It's his work. And that's the
second thing that Paul tells us here is that believers are
the epistle of Christ. Our lives are entirely in his
hands so that we are the very workmanship of Christ. What you
are is what Christ has worked in you, and done in you, and
is doing in you, and revealing in you. It's His work. It's His work. You are rooted
in Christ. If you're Christ's, you're rooted
in Him, and the tree that springs forth are His planting, rooted
in Christ, and He brings out the branches, and He sets the
leaves, and He puts out the flower and the fruit on the tree. It's
His work. Ephesians 2, 8-10 says it this
way, For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that faith
is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, lest any man should
boast. Not of works, lest any man should
boast, for we are his workmanship. He tells us that we're His workmanship
created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. You see how it's all
His hand moving and guiding and giving and teaching and keeping. It's not you better. It's look
what God has done. Hear what God has done and rejoice
in Him. Rejoice in Him. And the carnal
man hates that doctrine. It's an offense to him because
he's looking, well, where's my glory? What about me and all
that I've spent and labored for and done, all the sacrifices
I've made? And the natural man hates Christ because it takes
the boast from him and gives all the glory to Christ. all
the glory, and the natural man hates it, but the sinner rejoices
because he knows that in himself he's not worthy, he's not sufficient,
he doesn't have what it takes, he's not righteous in himself,
he needs the full righteousness of God given and revealed unto
us, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ. And so Christ has made us what
we are before God in grace, holy, acceptable, blameless in him,
or his epistle. Three, Paul says that believers
in Christ, those who are the epistle of Christ, are ministered
by us. Ministered by us. God uses the
ministry of the gospel to minister the spirit. unto the people. God uses the preaching of the
gospel to minister spiritual things to God's people. I quoted this verse earlier from
1 Corinthians 4, 1. Paul said, let a man so count
of us as of the ministers of Christ, not fleshly things. not
the plainness of the letter of things, but Christ. We're called
to minister Christ to you and stewards of the mysteries of
God. And so that means that we're
going to preach Christ. We're going to find Christ here
in all the scriptures because he tells us it testifies of him. Now, what are some of these mysteries
of God? Paul calls them the mystery of
the kingdom of God. Paul speaks of it as the mystery
of the Gentiles believing Christ unto the saving of their souls,
that Christ didn't just come for the Jews, but he came also
for the Gentiles. He's the savior of his people
among the Gentiles. Paul speaks of it as the mystery
of the resurrection, that we're just not being Stoics here in
this life, but that there is a life everlasting. We have a
rich reward in Christ and we shall be raised from the dead
when Christ returns. There is a mystery of Christ
and His church that we have a holy union with Him. We are the bride
of Christ, you that believe Him. Let me show you one example in
the scripture by turning to Colossians chapter 1. And we'll pick up in verse 25,
Colossians 1.25. Paul here is saying things very
similar to what he's telling the Corinthians. But here he's
writing to the Colossians and he says, whereof, verse 25, I
am made a minister. a minister according to the dispensation
of God which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God,
even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations,
but now is made manifest to his saints. to whom God would make
known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the
Gentiles, and here it is, which is Christ in you, the hope of
glory. And he goes on saying, whom we
preach. Who is it we preach? We preach
Christ. Then he says, warning every man. Now, the natural man thinks he's
saying, oh, see there? He's teaching the law. He's whipping
you with the law. He's warning you. You better
stop doing this and start doing that. That's not what he's saying
there. Warning every man is saying,
trusting in your works of righteousness to save you is death. It will
not save you. It cannot save you. Flee from
that idolatry and run to Christ. Look to Christ. Believe Him.
That's our acceptance with God. That's the warning we give. Trusting
your own works is death. Believe in Christ. He's life. He's life. That's the warning
every man. And teaching every man in all
wisdom. In other words, who's the wisdom
of God? What is the wisdom of God? It's
Christ. Christ is the wisdom of God. We're teaching you of
Christ, that he is salvation. That we may present every man
perfect in Christ Jesus. because it's Christ Jesus that
saves sinners. He came for sinners laying down
his life to put away the sins of his people. He paid the price.
He paid the debt. He sacrificed himself unto the
Father to deliver us from death. to let us go free while he paid
the debt that we owed, that we might have life and inheritance
in Jesus Christ. We may present every man perfect
in Christ, you that believe Christ. For all your righteousness, you
that have no righteousness but the righteousness of Christ,
you are perfect to stand before the throne of God, being accepted
of Him in perfect righteousness in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. So Christ is the mystery of God
whom we preach. That's the word that the Spirit
blesses. Therefore, we minister the mystery
of God through the preaching of Jesus Christ, that we may
receive grace and help and life in Him, that we may worship God
in spirit and in truth. And so this is the mystery. which
Paul spoke of, saying, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither
I've entered into the heart of man the things which God hath
prepared for them that love him." Brethren, we're not laboring
under a yoke and burden of the law. We're not laboring under
a yoke and burden of religion. We're living in Christ. We are free in Christ to know
God, to fellowship with God, to rejoice in Him, to not be
constantly beat down and worrying, well, oh, I slipped up there,
oh, I messed up there, and just heaping fire and brimstone upon
ourselves. No. We look to Christ and live. We have the blessing of Christ. He said, our Lord said in Matthew
11, 28 through 30, come unto me, all ye that labor and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you
and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. and ye shall
find rest unto your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden
is light." What is Christ's yoke and what is his burden? It's
faith. It's faith. Believing him, that's the burden.
That's the yoke that we have is faith. Walking by faith in
Christ. The just shall live by his faith. That's how we live. trusting
Him, trusting Him to cleanse every sin, trusting Him to keep
us, trusting Him to teach us, trusting Him to recover us, trusting
Him to keep us believing and looking to Christ. Is your hope
in your works or is your hope in Christ? That's what He shows
us. He either shows us that we're
hoping in death or that we're hoping in life. And that's what
he manifests in us. Christ in you is the hope of
glory, who of God has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. And Paul said, the natural man,
though, in 1 Corinthians 2.14, he said, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. And that hope in Christ
is a spiritual thing. It's of the Spirit of God. It's
what he reveals to us. All the natural man knows is
do and live. Do this work and live. You better
keep doing this work and you'll live. Otherwise you'll die. But
the believer believes Christ and lives. He knows his life
and salvation is Jesus Christ. But the natural man hears Christ
and thinks it's foolishness. How can these things be? How
can God receive a sinner? How can Christ sit and eat with
sinners? How can Christ be so free and
receive his people? How is it that I don't have to
do this perfectly and stay in this and keep doing this perfectly?
How is it that I can be received of Christ by grace? Well, because
God is That's how perfect and sufficient and full Christ Jesus
is. He's the Savior of sinners. But the natural man thinks it's
foolish and he cannot know them because they're spiritually discerned. It's going to take the Spirit
of God to do this in you, otherwise you'll never hear and never believe
it. And fourth, and I touched on
this now through these other points, but Paul speaks of God's
power saying, this mystery is written not with ink, but with
the spirit of the living God. And I really believe what he's
saying there is, I mean, this word is precious. I love this
word. I'm thankful for this word. But
this word in and of itself is ink. It's ink. And it's not that
this Word, by your coming to it in your own strength and wisdom,
that you will know salvation. It's a revelation. It takes the
Spirit of God by His power giving you life and making this Word
to be understood in spirit and in truth. that you may worship
God in spirit and in truth. And he sends forth his pastors
and preachers to proclaim this word, to minister this word through
the preaching of the gospel, showing you the mystery of this
word, that it's speaking of Jesus Christ, that you may live. Our Lord said to the Jews, search
the scriptures. For in them ye think ye have
eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. And ye will
not come unto me that ye might have life." That's the natural
man will not come to Christ that he might have life. He refuses
to hear and believe that this is speaking of Jesus Christ. He wants to hear what he has
to do. He wants to hear the ink. He wants to hear the plainness
of the word because he does not believe that there is a mystery
that he cannot come to without the Spirit of God. He does want
to believe that he can't get it by his own wisdom and strength. But once the Spirit comes, then
you know, I didn't know anything. I didn't know anything. And that's
why Christ said, no man can come to me except the Father which
hath sent me draw him. Then we'll come to Christ. Then
we'll believe Christ. Then that burden of all the works
and labors and stuff we're heaping on ourselves, thinking this is
life, this is salvation, then that burden gets lifted off of
us and removed. And so it's a work of God that
keeps us. He's not going to let this flesh
save us. That's why he sent Adam and Eve
out of the garden, lest man should stretch forth his own hand Take
of the tree of life and give himself eternal life That's why
he sent us out of that garden because it's not gonna be by
this flesh We're gonna know him by his power through the Lord
Jesus Christ And then Paul just at the end. He says almost the
same thing not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart
God makes his children new creatures and We are new creatures in Christ,
and you're not going to have any part of that salvation except
that you'll be the happy recipient of his grace. You'll be given
thanks and joy and rejoicing in the Holy Ghost, not by the
law of Moses under a yoke of man circumcising his flesh, but
it'll be a circumcision of the heart by the Spirit of God where
man's hand cannot reach. circumcision is that of the heart
in the spirit and not in the letter so brethren This is repeated
throughout this chapter here, and we'll come back to it at
some point, but we'll see it, how we are ministers of Christ.
This is the new covenant of His grace. We exalt Christ, and Christ
makes it effectual in your hearts under the saving of your souls,
seeing and rejoicing in the life that God manifests in your hearts. Believe in Christ. Amen.