Speaking of spreading the gospel,
I've been communicating with a young man from India. And on their Sunday morning,
they have a Zoom service, now that's on computer, where you
can get on that service and you can talk to each other in real
time. And he's asked me if I would preach to them. It's gonna be
on July 17th. That'll be Saturday night. It'll
be Sunday morning their time. So pray for me as I prepare for
that. He's got, there's several of them. I never thought I'd
preach in India sitting in my living room. But that's what
it's gonna amount to. So you be in prayer for that.
All right, let's turn to Exodus chapter 34. And if you want to,
find also 2 Corinthians chapter three. You have two texts in
your lesson as you can see, the most excellent glory. And I've
always said that the best commentary that you can buy on the Old Testament
is the New Testament, and that's true. And there are many times
we'll have direct references, direct quotations, and direct
references in the New Testament of things that happened in the
Old Testament, and this is one of them. This is where the Lord
had Moses record an event of Moses, you know, you remember
Moses when he went up into the mountain and got the Ten Commandments,
and he come back down and he found the children of Israel
worshiping a golden calf, and in anger he threw those tablets
down, and they were broken. Well, Moses went back up into
the mound, and the Lord gave him two new tablets. And he comes
back down now. And so, the law, and he got all
the law there, you know, all these passages are the record
of God giving Moses the law. And in the verses that we're
gonna look at today, beginning at verse 29, this is Moses coming
down from the mountain, The Lord gives us this record of that
event, and according to the Apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians 3, this
event teaches about Israel under the old covenant in contrast
to spiritual Israel under the new covenant. That's what he
used this for. Let's just read these verses,
beginning at verse 29. It says, 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 wished not that the skin of his, they knew not that
the skin of his face shone while he talked with them. In other
words, what he's saying here is it kind of began to glow,
literally. The skin of his face, this was
a physical manifestation here now. And it says in verse 30,
and when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold,
the skin of his face shone. And they were afraid to come
nigh him. They were afraid to even get near 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 him, he put a veil on his face. And the reason he did that, Paul's
gonna tell us, is so that they could look at him. He was so
bright. Verse 34, 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, and Moses
put the veil upon his face again until he went in to speak with
the Lord." So there's the veil. Now if you'll turn over to 2
Corinthians chapter three, the apostle Paul makes a spiritual
application to this event. And what he's doing, he's showing
the most excellent glory, the greater glory. Last week we talked
about the glory of God in Christ. Now, what we're going to see
is that that glory of God in Christ represented in the new
covenant. And remember the new covenant
is the fulfillment of the everlasting covenant of grace before time.
It's the fulfillment of that covenant in time by the coming
of Christ. And here he's gonna show in contrast
how the glory that we see in the face of Jesus Christ through
the gospel by the power of the spirit is much more, greater,
brighter, spiritually, not physically now, but brighter than that glory
that Moses had in his face after coming down out of that mountain.
And that's what he talks about. And again, now understand, now
this glory, this most excellent glory is the glory of God in
the salvation of sinners by His grace based upon, conditioned
on the obedience unto death of Christ, His blood, which is His
righteousness. That's the glory of God because
in that glory, we see how every attribute of God's nature is
honored and magnified and works consistently together for one
purpose, and that's to glorify the Lord in the salvation of
sinners like us. Salvation by Christ. And that's
the only way that God has ever saved sinners, even under the
old covenant. If any sinner, any Jew was saved,
it was by grace. through Christ based upon the
promise that God would send Christ into the world to do his great
work. Well, and you know that most
of the Jews under the old covenant missed that message. Now, you
know that. Paul dealt with that in Romans chapter nine when he
talked about Israel sought after righteousness, but they didn't
find it because they sought it by works of the law rather than
looking to Christ. But in 2 Corinthians 3, the apostle
Paul was inspired by the Spirit to take this event, that event
that's recorded in a few verses, and make a spiritual application
to the unbelieving Israelites who could not see the glory of
God in Christ. And look at 2 Corinthians 3,
look at verse one. He says, do we begin again to
commend ourselves or need we as some others epistles of commendation
to you or letters of commendation to you? What Paul was talking
about, I don't need credentials. I don't need the recommendations
of other men for you to believe what I'm telling you. He says,
you are our epistle, you're our letter. The fact that God has
saved you by his grace and brought you to see the glory of God in
Christ, that's enough to commend Paul to them. The message that
he preached is a message of salvation. It's a message of grace. He said,
you are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of
all men. Here's a person who was in the bondage of the law,
the bondage of sin, and God has set that person free through
the message of grace. And so he says, verse three,
for as much as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of
Christ. Paul didn't save these people,
Christ did. No preacher saves anybody. The
preacher can't even save himself. But he points sinners to Christ
who is our salvation. And so you're the epistle of
Christ. Your salvation is to the praise
of the glory of his grace, his power, his goodness. And he said,
ministered by us. We were the servants. We preached
the gospel. We were the signpost that pointed
you to Christ. Written not with ink. That is,
now think about when he's talking about written with ink, think
about Moses writing that law. He had the tablets of stone.
But then the rest of the law, the ceremonial law, the laws
of the priesthood, he wrote them down on paper or papyrus or whatever
they had back then. And so he says, but you're the
epistle of Christ ministered unto us, not written with ink.
And also I think it has a reference to the letters of commendation.
In other words, if you're, are you truly a man of God? Well,
let me see your credentials. And Paul said, that's not what
it's about. What do I preach? That's the key. Do I preach Christ
or do I preach myself? Over in 2 Corinthians 4, he'll
tell them, he says, we don't preach ourselves. We're not here
to promote ourselves. We don't preach salvation conditioned
on ourselves or on man. We preach Christ. So we don't
need these letters of commendation or the law written in pen and
ink, but with the spirit of the living God. The law could not
produce righteousness, Christ produced it. And it's imputed
to all of his people. That's what the spirit of the
living God testifies to. The law could not give life to
a dead sinner and change our hearts. That's the spirit of
the living God. And he said not in tables of
stone, so he's referring also to the law there, but in fleshy
tables of the heart. You remember over in Ezekiel,
he said, I'll give him a new heart. I'll take away the stony
heart and give him a heart of flesh. Now, flesh there not meaning
sins. Flesh, in a lot of ways, a lot
of passages, the word flesh means sin, doesn't it? But in other
passages, it doesn't. And what he's talking about here
is a heart of obedience, a heart of submission, the fleshy heart,
that way. Instead of the hard heart that
will not bow, will not believe. The fleshy heart is the one that
submits to Christ as the Lord our righteousness. And he says
in verse four, in such trust have we through Christ to Godward. We go to God through Christ.
Verse five, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything
as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. It's not by our power,
not by our persuasiveness, it's by the power of Christ, the power
of God. Well, he says in verse six, who
also have made us able ministers of the New Testament, the new
covenant. We don't preach the law. It's not of the letter,
but it's of the spirit. Now the spirit there I believe
should be capitalized because he's talking about what the spirit
of God inspires us to do. But some people say, well, if
it's the small s, then he's talking about this is a spiritual ministry. It's not a corporeal ministry. Like it's not tablets of stone
and physical tabernacles, physical clothing and washings and all
that. This is a spiritual matter. And it's not of the letter but
of the Spirit. For the letter killeth, now here's the reason
I think that it should be capitalized in talking about the Holy Spirit. The letter killeth, that's the
law. The law can only condemn a sinner based upon that sinner's
works. But the Spirit giveth life. Now
he's talking about the Holy Spirit there. The Spirit quickeneth,
see? The Holy Spirit is the third
person of the triune Godhead who is the sovereign agent sent
forth from the Father and the Son to give life to spiritually
dead sinners. The law couldn't do that. And
that's one of the biggest parts of the more excellent glory here. The law couldn't do what the
Romans 8 one tells us that what the law could not do and that
it was weak through the flesh, God sent forth his Son. to do
what we needed, that is to put away our sins, to establish righteousness
for us, to give life to the dead. And so the letter killeth, the
spirit giveth life. Look at verse seven now. He says,
but if the ministration of death, that's what he calls the law,
the old covenant law, the ministration of death. The blood of bulls
and goats could not take away sin. Sin demands death. Think about that. Written and
engraved in stones, is there any doubt what he's talking about
here? That's the Ten Commandments.
It condemns sinners to whom sin is imputed. That's what the law
does. If sin is imputed, charged, or
accounted to me, the law condemns me. Therefore, what's my only
hope? for God to find a way to not
impute sin to me and do it justly. And of course we know that's
the way of grace in Christ. So if the ministration of death
written and engraved in stones was glorious, and it had a glory
now, didn't it? Think about all the miracles,
all the things that God did for those people in their journeys,
and even the glory of the Lord that shone in Moses' face coming
down out of the mountain. It was glorious, and look, here's
what he's talking about specifically. 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. That shining
glory that was in Moses' face coming down, it wasn't gonna
last. Now Paul's using that to show how the whole glory of the
whole old covenant wasn't gonna last. It was set up to be taken
away. And of course we know how it
was abolished. It was abolished by fulfillment
in the person and work of Christ. But that glory was to be done
away. It was glorious. Now you think about that. Think
about Moses coming down out of that mountain and his face shining. But not only that, think about
all the other things that they had seen that were glorious.
The pillar of the cloud, the pillar of fire, all of that.
The water out of the, I mean, that was glorious. But all of
that glory. And what that means, glory, doesn't
mean that it was just impressive. It means that it showed some
aspect of the greatness and the majesty of God. But you see,
that was to be done away with and replaced, some people call
it replacement theology, I call it fulfillment theology, to be
fulfilled in a greater way that would last forever, and that's
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. What the law
couldn't do, Christ did do. And it was finished. And so he
says in verse eight, how shall not the ministration of the Spirit
be rather glorious, and I believe that's the Holy Spirit. You see,
the Holy Spirit, and I don't wanna go into all this, because
I don't have time. The Holy Spirit operated during the old covenant
times, and especially in those who, the remnant that truly believed
the gospel. But as far as his administration
during the old covenant, it was an outward ministry for the most
part, for the majority of them. But the ministry of the Spirit
in the new covenant, the salvation of God's chosen people, spiritual
Israel, is Christ sent forth the Spirit to apply sovereignly
and invincibly what he had earned for us, and that's eternal life.
So he says in verse nine, for if the ministration of condemnation
be glory, that's the law, much more does the ministration of
righteousness exceed in glory. Now what is he talking about?
Righteousness. The law couldn't make anybody righteous. The law
could tell you what righteousness is because throughout in the
book of Leviticus, what was the lesson there about the sacrifices
and the law? Be ye therefore holy, be ye therefore
perfect. It had to be perfect to be accepted.
There had to be a perfection of righteousness that the law
could not produce, but it was typified. The perfection of righteousness
that sinners can have in this greater glory was typified in
that old covenant, in the ceremonies, the priesthood, and the sacrifice,
but it can only be fulfilled in Christ. And that's the spiritual
ministry. That's the ministry of the spirit
is to bring sinners to Christ. to believe in Him, to rest in
Him, to plead Him as our righteousness. That's what the Spirit does.
And so He calls it the ministration of righteousness, because it's
in Christ, the gospel, the preaching and the revelation of the righteousness
of God. Well, verse 10 says, for even
that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect
by reason of the glory that excelleth. When you compare the glory of
the old covenant and all of the ministration of that covenant
to the glory of God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ,
what do you see? That old covenant had no glory
at all, really. No real lasting glory. Think
about that. Verse 11, for if that which is
done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is
glorious. That's where we're at. That's
what Paul uses that passage and he goes on, verse 12, now seeing
then that we have such hope. We not only have a hope, we have
such hope. What a hope we have. This is
no pipe dream. This is not something we have
to achieve by our works and our efforts. Our hope is built on
nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. This is the
certain expectation and assurance of eternal glory forever and
ever and ever because of what Christ accomplished in his obedience
unto death on that cross. It's finished, he says. And because
we have such a hope, we use great plainness or boldness of speech. We don't have to hold back. We
don't have to hedge our bets. We don't have to water it down
to make it palatable to the natural man. All we have to do is just
preach it out, and God's gonna save his people. That's all we
have to do. Now, there may be some get mad
and get offended, but God's gonna save his people. Verse 13, and not as Moses which
put a veil over his face that the children of Israel could
not steadfastly look to the end of that which is of violence.
Couldn't even look at him. What a glory that was. But we
have something better, he says. And listen to this application
of verse 14. But their minds were blinded.
Now Moses had a physical glow. put a veil over his face. But
the apostle goes even deeper. It's not just what they could
not physically look at, it's what they could not mentally
see and understand. And their minds were blinded.
Now what this tells you now, I know there's a lot of people
who go awry on this thing. Salvation has something to do
with the mind. In fact, if we would go with
the way the Hebrews thought, the heart consists of the mind,
the affections, the will, the conscience. Well, their minds
were blinded. What is it to have a blinded
mind? It's to have an ignorant mind.
They were ignorant. What were they ignorant of? Well,
Paul talked about it in Romans chapter 10. He said, they being
ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness. They were ignorant about how
God makes sinners righteous. And therefore, what did he say?
They're lost. Their minds were blinded, he
says. For until this day, look at verse 14, for until this day
remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old
Testament. They've got a veil over their
mind. What kind of veil is that? Well, it's the veil of ignorance,
spiritual darkness, the veil of self-righteousness, the veil
of unbelief. Isn't that the way we all are
naturally? It's what I was before God entered
my mind, gave me a new heart. And he says, which veil is done
away in Christ? Those things are done away in
Christ. Verse 15, but even unto this day when Moses is read,
the veil is upon their heart. So when he talks about the heart,
he includes the mind, the mind, the affections, the will. So
when they read the Old Testament, you remember over in John chapter
five when Christ looked at the Pharisees in verse 39, he says,
you do search the scriptures, for in them you think you have
eternal life, but they are they which testify of me. You see,
they were reading their Bibles, They were memorizing it, they
were studying it, they were writing commentaries on it, but because
there was a veil over their mind and over their heart, they missed
the main message. That's the way people are today.
They read their Bibles, they go to church, they listen to
preachers, but they're not hearing the right message. They're not
hearing the gospel. They're not hearing about a righteousness
that we cannot produce. They're not hearing about Christ's
righteousness imputed and received by God-given faith. All they're
hearing is, is God loves you, Christ died for you, now you
make the difference. And then they're hearing all
kinds of other messages that have nothing to do with the gospel
or the Bible. But they read their Bibles, they'll
open, turn to such and such scripture. I heard a preacher years ago,
he said, turn to Isaiah 53, and he read that verse, by his stripes
we are healed, and then he had a healing service. That's not
what that means. I pray, listen, I pray for physical
healing. Do you? I sure do. God may grant it, God may not
grant it. But I know the kind of healing
that Christ brought about by his stripes is a sure and certain
thing for every one of his sheep. And it's spiritual healing. And
that veil was over that fellow who was preaching that message
that morning on TV. There's a veil over his heart
and there's a veil over the people's heart. But if they would ever
turn to Christ, if God would ever turn them to Christ, that's
what happens, isn't it? That veil would be taken away.
And they'd see, listen, they would see a glory that excels
somebody getting healed of cancer. Or somebody getting healed of
whatever. Isn't that glorious if God is
pleased to heal a person physically? It is. But there's a greater
glory. There's a glory that excels. And that's what he's saying.
When it shall turn to the Lord. Now we know that men and women
will not of their own free will turn to the Lord. We know that
when they turn to the Lord, it's God doing the work, isn't that
right? It's God who turns us. But where does God always turn
us? Turns us to Christ, the glory of God. And verse 17, now the
Lord is that spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there's
liberty. What he's saying there is that
the Holy Spirit is God, and just as the Father and the Son. And
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty, there's
freedom. The law is bondage. The law shackles a sinner, condemns
a sinner. It's the ministration of death.
It's the ministration of condemnation. It's the letter that kills. But
the Spirit of the Lord that brings us to Christ, there's liberty.
There's a two-fold liberty there. There's a legal liberty in our
justification. We're not guilty. Our sins have
been taken away. God cannot and will not impute
sin to our account. God has imputed Christ's righteousness
to our account. And we have a perfection of righteousness
that cannot be taken away and cannot be contaminated. It's
the imputed righteousness of Christ. And that's our legal
liberty. The law cannot condemn us. God
will not and cannot impute sin to us. And then there's a spiritual
liberty when the Holy Spirit gives us a new heart in the new
birth. He sets us free. He liberates
us from this blindness and this darkness of ignorance and brings
us to faith in Christ. Oh, we still have sin to deal
with now, every day. But now we know and have seen
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And verse 18
says, but we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass, a mirror, the glory of the Lord are changed
into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit
of the Lord. One day, we're going to be perfectly
conformed to the image of Christ. We'll be changed, 1 Corinthians
15 tells us. in the twinkling of an eye will
be changed, will be glorified, and live in a perfect spiritual
body forever and ever. Okay.