Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm continuing a study that I began several
weeks ago in 2 Corinthians 3 concerning the New Testament. And when I
say the New Testament, I'm talking about the New Covenant. which
is the fulfillment in time of the covenant of grace that Christ
accomplished in his first advent, in his obeying the law and going
to the cross. So it's the New Testament. This
is part six, and this is the conclusion of this six-part message. I urge you to get the others
or listen to the others on our website. Order them out. Whatever you can do, study the
Bible. That's what we're doing. And
Paul here, as he's inspired by the Holy Spirit, is showing the
church at Corinth the great contrast between the old covenant law
of Moses that God instituted at Mount Sinai through Moses
to the nation Israel, the physical nation, which lasted about 1,500
years from Sinai to the cross. And then the new covenant, which
is the fulfillment in time, as I said, of the everlasting covenant
of grace made before time, conditioned on Christ. And this is where
the gospel is. You know, the gospel is the preaching
of the terms of the everlasting covenant of grace or the new
covenant, which is in essence are the same. Time-wise, they're
distinct because like I said, God established the everlasting
covenant of grace before time, before the world began, the scripture
says. 2 Timothy 1 verses 9 and 10 talks
about salvation that was given to God's elect in Christ Jesus
before the world began. The Bible in Revelation 13 talks
about those whose names are not written in the Lamb's book of
life. That was before the foundation of the world. The people of God,
their names were written in the Lamb's book of life before the
world began. The Lamb that was slain. And
so, their being chosen by God, being justified, forgiven of
their sins, and declared righteous before God, was all conditioned
upon Christ, the God-man. God manifest in the flesh, coming
into the world, and dying for their sins on the cross. Redeeming
them Christ. I make I talk about this all
the time Christ is the surety of his people that means all
of the debt of their sins were charged to him laid to his account
and Being their surety he had to come and take their place.
That's a substitution Christ died for the sins of his people. He died for his sheep and and
then redemption. That's the accomplishment of
his death. He bought them lock, stock, and
barrel. He will have them. And out of that, he will give
them life from the dead in the new birth. And that's what we're
talking about here in this last portion of 2 Corinthians 3, when
Paul, speaking of the lost Jews, the lost Israelites, who read
the Old Testament, study it, Just like we looked in John chapter
5, he told the Pharisees, you do search the scriptures, but
you've missed it. And the reason, he says, is you
have a veil over your heart. That's what he spoke of in verse
13 here, 2 Corinthians 3. A veil, a blindness, blinded
by self-righteousness and self-love and ignorance. Because you think
salvation at some stage, in some way, to some degree, is conditioned
on you, your obedience. In other words, you think salvation
is God's response to what you either do or what you decide. And that's not, if you think
that, there's a veil over your heart, you're blinded. You see,
salvation is not God's response to you. Salvation is you responding
to God's powerful, sovereign work of grace through Christ
by the power of the Spirit. You must be born again. So he
says in verse 15, now look at verse 15 of 2 Corinthians 3.
He said, even unto this day when Moses is read, now that's the
Old Testament scriptures. By this time they had quite a
few of them. Usually when it speaks of Moses, it's speaking
of the first five books of the Old Testament. and that's the
Pentateuch or the Torah, but there are others, the Psalms,
Christ spoke of that in the book of Luke when he sat down with
his disciples and taught them concerning the scriptures in
Moses, in the prophets, in the Psalms concerning himself. And so when they read those,
he says, the veil is upon their heart, the veil of self-righteousness.
And I tell you right now, it's like people today. Now you may
be one of these people. You read your Bible. You memorize
it. You study it. You read and write
commentaries on it. But if you haven't seen the glory
of the person and finished work of Christ, and when I say finished
work of Christ, listen to me now. I'm talking about what Christ
accomplished in his death. Not simply that he died. Now
he did die. And that's to be attributed to
his humanity. It was an act of his entire person.
It's a mind-boggling thing. But not just that he died, not
just that he lived a perfect life, not just that he died and
was buried and arose again, but what did he accomplish when he
did that? Did he just try to save everybody
if they'd let him? Well, if you believe that, that's
not the scriptures. That's not what the Bible says.
Or did he accomplish redemption for his people for whom he died?
The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. And he knows his
sheep by name. The Lord knoweth them that are
his. He accomplished salvation. There's not one person for whom
Christ died who will perish in eternal damnation. And if you
believe there is, you don't know Christ. There's a veil over your
heart. So you believe you make the difference,
not Christ. It's all glory to Him. And so
He says in verse 16, nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord,
turn to the true God of this Bible, the true Jesus Christ,
not a counterfeit, but turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken
away. When God turns a sinner to Christ,
and that's what happens, You don't turn yourself to Christ
because you won't do that. I mentioned this last week. I
was talking to a young man not too long ago and he said, well,
I just believe we all have a choice. Well, we do. But if left to ourselves,
we'll always make the wrong choice. We'll never make the right choice.
And I mentioned this, there are two ways, two choices. There's
the broad road that leads to destruction. Christ spoke of
this in Matthew 7. There's the broad road that leads
to destruction, and then there's the narrow way that leads, the
straight gate, the narrow way that leads to life. Now, the
Bible teaches us, this is the sinfulness and the depravity
of man, ruined by the fall, born dead in trespasses and sins.
The Bible teaches us that if left to ourselves, to our own
choice, our own volition, what people today call our free will,
If left to our own wills, we will always make the wrong choice. And we will be on the broad road
that leads to destruction. And the veil that's over our
heart, the blindness is this. Being on the broad road that
leads to destruction, we think that it's a way of life. We think
it's the way of salvation. We think it's the way of heaven. But it's the way of death. And
I mentioned this, how in Proverbs, there are two times, it says,
there's a way that seemeth right unto a man, but it's the way
of death. So man thinks he's saved when
he's not. One old preacher said, everybody
thinks they're saved before they're saved until they're saved. Then they realize what lost really
is. So we don't turn ourselves to Christ, God turns us. It's
a work of God. The new birth, the new birth
does not come about as a result of our choice. You see, this
is where people have it all wrong. I'll show you that over in the
book of John chapter one. The new birth is a sovereign
work of Christ through the Spirit. The Spirit imparting, as you
will, the resurrection life of Christ. into a dead center, into
our hearts, our minds, affections, will, gives us a new heart. The
new birth is not the result of our making a right choice. Our
making the right choice is the result of the new birth. The
new birth is not the result of our believing. Our believing
is the result of the new birth. Don't get the cart before the
horse. How do you know that? Well, look at John chapter 1
and verse 11. It says here, talking about Christ,
He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. Now, that
could be talking about the nation Israel, His own nation, because
He was in His humanity, He was a Jew. It also could be talking
about His elect. He came for His own, and they
received Him not. That's talking about God's elect
by nature, left to ourselves, because we're all born in a state
of sin and depravity. That's our state by nature. But He says in verse 12, but
as many as received Him, now some received Him. It says, but
as many as received Him, to them gave He power. to become the
sons of God. Now that word power there is
not ability. It means the right, the privilege,
the honor. What right do I have to call
myself a true child of God, a sinner saved by grace, justified in
God's sight, forgiven of all my sins, and declared righteous
before God? What right do I have to say that?
My right is evidenced by the fact that I've received Him.
I've received Christ. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now how did I get there? Look at verse 13. Read verse
12 again. But as many as received Him,
To them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name. You see, that's the right that
we have to be called the sons of God. We believe on his name,
his glorious person, his finished work. Verse 13, which were born. They were born. Now he's talking
about the new birth here, not the first birth. The first birth
were dead in trespasses and sins. But which were born, not of blood,
It wasn't passed down by inheritance. He says, nor the will of the
flesh. That's the works of the flesh.
You weren't born into it naturally. Naturally, you're born dead in
trespasses. Natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God. You weren't born into it by your works, and then he
says in verse 13, nor of the will of man. It wasn't your choice,
your will, your desire that caused you to be born again, but which
were born of God. That's clear, isn't it? Now go
back to 2 Corinthians chapter three. He says in verse 16, nevertheless
when it shall turn to the Lord, when God gives us a new heart
and turns us to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. That
veil of self-righteousness that deceived us and kept us from
receiving Christ is taken away. Now that doesn't mean that all
sin is taken away from our persons, or from ourselves, because if
you're saved, you're a sinner saved by grace, you still have
the flesh. You still have to fight self-righteousness in your
life. But that veil that kept you in the dark, kept you deceived,
is taken away. Now you see the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ, and he says in verse 17, now
the Lord is that spirit In other words, that which takes that
veil away, that's the Lord through the Spirit. And where the Spirit
of the Lord is, there is liberty. Freedom from the law. Free from the law, oh happy condition. Jesus hath bled and there is
remission. And that liberty is a two-fold
liberty. Number one, it's a legal liberty. What does that mean? Well, looking
to Christ, I see that in Him, because He died for my sins,
was buried in a rose again the third day, the law cannot condemn
me. The law has no hold on me. The law has nothing against me.
God will not impute or charge me with my sins. You see that? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justified. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather,
is risen again and seated at the right hand of the Father,
ever living to make intercession for us. David wrote, blessed
is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. God will not charge
me with my sins. He charged my sins to Christ.
And Christ paid my sin debt. He put them away. He washed them
away. He purged them away. He put away
sin by the sacrifice of himself. And Paul wrote in Romans 4, 6
that David was describing the blessedness of the man to whom
the Lord imputed righteousness without works. I have a righteousness
that answers the demands of God's law and justice. I died with
Christ. He's my representative, he's
my surety, he's my redeemer, my substitute and redeemer, so
that when he died, I died. When he was buried, I was buried.
When he arose again, I arose again. I didn't do it personally,
but he did it for me in my place. He died for my sins. He was made
a curse for me. You see, all that is the legal
justification of a sinner. It's legal freedom. Romans 6,
7 says, for he that is dead, dead with Christ, is free, justified
from sin. So I'm free. And then the second
part of that liberty is the new birth. It's being free from the
deception, liberated from the darkness and the deception that
kept me blind, that kept me in unbelief because God turned on
the light. Now I'm free to serve him, free
to serve righteousness. And that's that liberty of regeneration
and conversion, the new birth, which brings me to Christ. And
he says in verse 18 of 2 Corinthians 3, but we all with open face,
beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord. And we're
changed into the same image from glory to glory. even as by the
Spirit of the Lord." What he's talking about is that Christ
is glorified in our hearts, and we see our glory in Him. We glory
in the cross. We glory in Christ. Now move
on to 2 Corinthians 4, and you'll see this is kind of summarized
here, what he's talking about. See, this is the New Testament.
This is the new covenant. And he says, therefore, in verse
1, seeing we have this ministry, Now remember back over in 2 Corinthians
3, he called the old covenant the ministration of the killing
letter, as opposed to the ministration of the spirit, ministration of
death, he says, the ministration of condemnation. Well, that's
not the ministry that we have if we're under the new covenant.
If we're believers, if we've been saved by grace, we have
the ministry of the Holy Spirit, preaching the gospel of Christ.
Listen folks, the ministry of the Holy Spirit is not me standing
up and performing miracles and speaking in tongues or what people
call tongues today. The ministry of the Holy Spirit
is preaching the gospel. Preaching the gospel of Christ,
pointing sinners to Christ. That's the ministry of the Spirit.
And he calls it the ministration of righteousness. I can tell
you about a righteousness that will answer the demands of God's
law and justice. A righteousness which we don't
have by nature, a righteousness which we cannot work by our efforts
at obedience, a righteousness that we don't have, but a righteousness
that we can have in Christ. And that's His righteousness
imputed. I want to tell you about the righteousness of God. For
God made him to be sin, Christ who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. Our sins, this is
to everyone who believes now, not to those who are still, the
veil's over their heart. But Christ, my sins were imputed,
charged to Christ, and His righteousness has been imputed, charged to
me. And it is mine, not because I worked it, not because it's
in me, because He gave it to me by imputation. And I received
Him by God-given faith, submitted to Him as my righteousness. And
so that's the ministry we have. And so this is the ministry of
righteousness. It's the ministration of glory. So seeing that we have this ministry,
this ministry of the gospel, this ministry of grace, we faint
not, as we have received mercy. And that tells you that this
ministry we have, we didn't get it because we earned it or deserved
it, it was mercy in Christ, we faint not. We don't quit. We don't stop. We don't even
trip. So verse two, he says, but we
have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty or shame. And what is that? That's salvation
by the works or the wills of men. Remember we read in Romans
chapter nine that those who believe on Christ, they will not be confounded,
they will not be shamed. You see, in myself, Thinking
about myself and times in my life, I can tell you I've got
a lot to be ashamed of. I love the Lord, but many times
I'm ashamed of how weak my love is. I believe in the Lord, but
many times I'm ashamed of how weak my faith is. I love my neighbor,
I love my brethren, but many times I'm ashamed of how little
my love is. when the flesh corrupts and contaminates
me. But there's one thing, one person
that I don't have any, I don't have to be ashamed of, and that's
Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the dead. His blood and
right, I don't have to be ashamed, I don't have anything to be ashamed
of about Him. So we've renounced those hidden
things of dishonesty, of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor
handling the word of God deceitfully, like the unbelieving Jews used
the Old Testament, like people today who read the Old and the
New Testament, but preach salvation conditioned on sinners or by
works, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves
to every man's conscience in the sight of God. Now he's talking
to believers whose consciences have been cleansed by the blood
of Christ. But look at verse three. But if our gospel be hid,
it is hid to them that are lost. In whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not." They're blinded
to the truth. The God of this world, that could
refer to Satan even though most of the time he's not, or I don't
think of any other time he's not referred to as the God of
this world. Some people believe that this is God himself and
the word God should be capitalized because it's God's judicial blindness
of those who refuse to believe. You see an example of that in
2 Thessalonians 2 where it says God, in the last days, he will
send them strong delusion that they would believe a lie. It's
his judgment upon them. But the key of it here is they're
blinded. He's blinded the minds of them which believe not. If
you don't believe the gospel, the true gospel, if you're not
resting in the true Christ of scripture and his righteousness
alone as the only ground of your salvation and justification before
God, what does that tell you? The scripture tells you you're
blind. You're blinded by your own self-love and self-worth
and self-righteousness. And he says, he says, 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. The gospel is a light. It's a light of Christ. He is
the light. The Bible says, let your light
so shine before men, that's the gospel, that they may see your
good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. The light
there is not the good works, the light is the gospel that
shines on those works to the glory of God. John 3, 19 says
that this is the condemnation that light has come into the
world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds
are evil, they hate the light. Because the preaching of this
light, the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, the light of
His glorious person, the light of His righteousness, exposes
their best efforts to keep the law and obey, their most sincere
efforts, as being evil deeds. Evil, not because they're immoral
or insincere, but evil because they deny the glory of God in
Christ. They deny Christ. Paul wrote
in Galatians, in Galatians 2, he said, I think it's verse 21,
if righteousness come by the law, Christ is dead in vain. If you think you're righteous
because of what you do or try to do or are unable to do, you're
saying Christ died in vain. And that's an abomination. That's
a denial of him. So he says, the light of verse
four, 2 Corinthians 4, lest the light of the glorious gospel
of Christ, who is the image of God, God manifest in the flesh,
should shine unto them. And look at what he says in verse
five. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and
ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. We're not here to promote
ourselves. We're not here to brag on ourselves.
We don't preach salvation conditioned on ourselves. We preach Christ,
and all we are is just servants, pointing sinners to Christ. We're
like John the Baptist. John the Baptist, you mean he
said, I'm not the Christ? He said, behold the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sins of the world. Christ pointing, he
says, I'm not the Messiah. He said, I can't wash you from
your sins. I can't give you spiritual life.
He said, I'm not even worthy to untie his shoes. He said,
I must decrease, Christ must increase. You see that? When
John preached, they heard John preach, but they followed Jesus.
So we don't preach ourselves, but we preach Christ. And all
we are is just servants pointing you to Christ. Christ is the
bread of life, I'm just serving the bread. Christ is the water
of life, I'm just pointing you to the well. The spring of life. And he says in verse six, he
says, for God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness.
Now that's the God of creation. He said, hath shined in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. What is his face? Well, that's
that which identifies him and distinguishes him from all counterfeits.
It's the glory of his person. Who is he? God manifest in the
flesh. and it's the power and accomplishment
of his finished work. What did he do? He secured the
complete salvation of all for whom he lived and died. That's
the New Testament. Hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, Write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. Contact us
by phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.