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. I'd like to welcome you to our
program today, and if you'd like to follow along in your Bibles,
for the past four Sundays I've been preaching from the book
of 2 Corinthians chapter 3. This is in the New Testament,
obviously. It's Paul's second epistle or
letter to the church at Corinth. And he's describing in this passage
the contrast between the Old Covenant law, the Old Covenant
law of Moses, which began at Mount Sinai, where God gave Moses
the Ten Commandments and the other laws, the laws of ceremony,
the laws of the priesthood, all of that. And it began there and
lasted up until the time of Christ. When Christ came and did his
great work of redemption, for the salvation of His people when
He died on the cross. And I pointed out there that
when Christ died on the cross, after He said it's finished and
He gave up the ghost, He said, Father, into Thy hands I commend
my spirit. And He gave up the ghost, which
means He died in His humanity. The veil in the temple was torn
into from top to bottom indicating that the Old Covenant Law was
now fulfilled and finished. abolished, the book of Hebrews
tells us, by way of fulfillment, and then began the new covenant,
the New Testament. And that's the title of these
messages. This is part five on the New Testament from 2 Corinthians
chapter three. And I urge you, if you haven't
heard or if you've missed any of the prior messages on this
subject, look at our website or call us and get these messages.
You can download them, you can listen to them on our website.
or you can get copies of them on a CD. That's about it now
today. CDs don't have tapes anymore.
I'm giving away my age, aren't I? But the thing about it is,
get these and study this subject. Now, a lot of times, I may mention
of this, a lot of times when we talk about the Old Testament
and the New Testament, we're speaking in literary terms which
would mean the books of the Bible. Old Testament being Genesis to
Malachi and New Testament being Matthew to Revelation. But now
that's not what I'm talking about. There is a division there for
the purpose of the literature of the Bible and helping us to
understand and find the truths, and so the Old Testament, the
literature of the Old Testament is those books of the Bible that
were written prior to the coming of Christ into the world, and
then you have the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John, which
is the accounts of the life of Christ here on earth, and then
the epistles that go up through. We have the Acts of the Apostles
too, which is a historical beginning of the New Testament church,
and then the epistles from Romans to Revelation. But that's the
literature. What I'm talking about is the
covenants. The old covenant that Israel,
the nation, physical nation of Israel was under through Moses
and it lasted about 1,500 years long after Moses and up until
the time of Christ. And then the new covenant which
is what the church is in today. Now the new covenant The New
Testament, and I'm not gonna go over all of this in detail,
because I already have in the prior messages, but the New Covenant
is, in essence, is the revelation in time of something that's older
than time. And that is what the Bible calls
the everlasting covenant of grace. Now, the everlasting covenant
of grace is the covenant of redemption, the covenant of salvation. And
that covenant was between the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. One God, three subsistence, three
persons. Before the foundation of the
world, before the world began, God made a covenant. The Father
with the Son. And then the Spirit was involved
too, the Holy Spirit as the great applicator of salvation. Where
God the Father chose a people to save and chose them in Christ,
gave them to Christ, made Christ their surety. And then in the
process of time, God sent forth his son. We read about this in
passages like Galatians chapter four and verse four. In the fullness
of the time, God sent forth his son made of a woman. Now that
God sent forth his son, that speaks of the deity of Jesus
Christ. And then God sent forth his son
made of a woman. That speaks of the sinless humanity
of Jesus Christ and made him under the law. Now that speaks
of the covenant conditioned on Christ. The law, he became accountable. Under the law, for the sins of
his people, the sin debt of his people. So made under the law
to redeem them that were under the law. And so how did he redeem
them? By the price of his blood, his
death on the cross. So the new covenant is the establishment
in time of the everlasting covenant of grace made before time. The New Covenant and the Everlasting
Covenant of Grace, in essence, are the same because they both
speak of the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace conditioned
on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Covenant blessings, which
was given to the nation Israel through a promise God made to
Abraham, but its blessings and its prosperity was conditioned
on Israel and they failed. And we read about that last time
in Jeremiah 31, where it says, which covenant they broke. Now
the new covenant and the everlasting covenant of grace, which are
in essence, cannot be broken. Why? Because it's not conditioned
on sinners. It's not conditioned on me. It's
not conditioned on you. It's conditioned on Christ. All
of its promises, all of its blessings, all of its benefits, are upon
Christ. That's what Isaiah chapter nine
means when it talks about the government will be upon his shoulder. That's the prosperity and the
fulfillment of the covenant of grace was placed upon the shoulders
of Christ. He bears it. Second Corinthians
1.20 says, all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him,
amen, sure and certain. And that's the issue of grace.
What is grace? Grace is salvation conditioned
on Christ, the Lord of glory, God manifest in the flesh, who
fulfilled those conditions by his obedience unto death as the
surety, the substitute, and the redeemer of his people. And the
merit of all that he accomplished is called the righteousness of
God. That's what's revealed in the gospel. The gospel is the
revelation of the righteousness of God. Romans 1, 16 and 17. So what Paul is doing here, as
he's inspired by the Holy Spirit, is to show the contrast that
the new covenant is so much better, so much greater. First of all,
the old covenant was very, it was temporal, temporary. It's
gone. The new covenant is forever and
ever and ever as it is connected with the everlasting covenant
of grace. The old covenant, was a killing ladder, he says. It was the ministration of death. Why? Because by deeds of law
shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. What is it to be
justified? It's to be forgiven of all my
sins and declared righteous in God's sight. That's what it is
to be justified. And so the new covenant is a
ministration of life. It's the ministration of the
Spirit, meaning the Holy Spirit. And so he says, he called it,
the old covenant was the ministration of condemnation. Because that's
all the law can do to a sinner based upon that sinner's works.
That's right. The only thing the law can do
for you and me based upon our works is condemn us. And so we need grace, salvations
by grace, not by works. And the new covenant is the ministration
of righteousness. And that righteousness is what
we find in Christ. Righteousness is not what we
find in ourselves. Righteousness is perfect satisfaction
to God's law and justice. And the perfection of the righteousness
of the law can only be found in the glorious person and finished
work of Christ. And so that's why the new covenant
is so much more glorious and so much better than the old covenant. There's no life in the law. There's
only life in Christ who kept the law for His people. Romans
10, four, for Christ is the end of the law, the fulfillment of
the law, the perfection of the law, the finishing of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believe it. And so look
at verse 11 of 2 Corinthians 3. So Paul writes, for if that
which is done away was glorious, that's the old covenant, and
it was glorious. You go back and read from Exodus
where it was established at Sinai. and all the way through Malachi
and even up through the gospels because the old covenant was
in effect when Christ walked the earth. He was under the law,
made under the law. And that law wasn't finished
until he died. And he made an end of the law,
the scripture says in Daniel chapter nine or in other places. But it was glorious. But much
more, verse 11, much more that which remaineth is glorious,
the new covenant. You see, the new covenant is
much more glorious, not because of what you see with the physical
eye. You can look back at the old
covenant and its glory, you can see so many glorious things,
the parting of the Red Sea even before it was established. Moses
coming down from the mount, having the Ten Commandments with a glow
about him. And you can look through their
history, the manna and the water from the rock and the pillar
of fire and the pillar of a cloud, all that was glorious. But compared
to what happens to a sinner saved by grace under the new covenant,
and this is the way God saved people under the old covenant,
not according to the terms of that covenant, But according
to the terms of the everlasting covenant of grace, that covenant,
that work by Christ changes a sinner in the heart. Gives him eyes
to, gives him spiritual life from the dead. The old covenant
couldn't do that. Raises us from the dead spiritually. That's
what the new birth is. You must be born again. That's
a resurrection from the dead, spiritually speaking. Gives us
eyes to see and ears to hear the gospel, the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ, Paul writes later. Gives us a
new heart. Remember, if you saw last program,
in Jeremiah 31, he said, I'll put my laws in their inward parts
and write it in their hearts. In Ezekiel 36, he says, I'll
give them a new heart, a new spirit. The old covenant could
not accomplish that. Oh, it could show you so many
great and mighty things that God did in physical nature, but
my friend, it could not change the heart. And you see that in
the history of Israel. Could not bring a sinner to faith
in Christ and repentance of dead works. And so for that which
was done away was glorious much more. that which remaineth. And so Paul writes in verse 12,
seeing then that we have such hope, what a hope believers have. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. That's our hope, the hope of
eternal life. The hope not just of seeing physical
miracles here on earth, but the hope of living forever in the
bliss of glory with God in Christ. John said about that, he said,
brethren, it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we'll be
like him. You see, right now, even as a
sinner saved by grace, I'm righteous before God in Christ based upon
Christ's righteousness imputed to me, charged legally to my
account. But I'm not righteous in myself,
I'm still a sinner. I have a new heart, I have a
new spirit of life, but I still have the corruptions of the flesh,
and there's a battle within me every day, and that's every true
believer. But one day I'll be free from the flesh, I'll be
perfect within myself, and I'll live with Him forever and ever
and ever and ever. And what a glorious thought.
The Old Covenant could not do that. But you see, this is the
hope. So seeing that we have such a
hope based upon the blood of Christ, based upon His righteousness
imputed, we use great plainness of speech, boldness of speech. We can speak boldly here. We
don't have to be timid. We don't have to apologize for
what we believe or what we say. And he says in 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 abolished. Even that physical glory, that
physical light that Moses had when he came down from the mount,
and the children of Israel could not even look upon him, it was
so bright, and he had to put a veil over his face. But here's
the real problem. Look at verse 14. He says, but
their minds were blinded. Their minds were blinded. Their
thoughts. And he says, for until this day. Now Paul here speaking of his
day. remaineth the same veil untaken
away in the reading of the Old Testament, the Old Testament
Scriptures, the Old Covenant, which veil is done away in Christ. What was Israel's problem under
the Old Covenant? Well, it's the same problem we
all have by nature. There was no spiritual life.
There was no spiritual sight. There was no spiritual hearing.
The natural man, That is, we're born naturally, fallen in Adam,
ruined by the fall. You see, that's what it is. We're
ruined by the fall, that's why we have to be redeemed by the
blood and regenerated by the Holy Spirit. So having been ruined
by the fall, born naturally and spiritually dead in trespasses
and sins, there is naturally a veil over our heart, a blindness,
a spiritual blindness. to where we cannot see the value
and the glory of the gospel, the person, and the finished
work of Christ. See, man by nature will always
insist on salvation in some way, at some stage, to some degree,
conditioned on himself, so that he can say, I made the difference. I was talking to a young man
a few weeks back, and he said, well, I just believe we all have
a choice. And I told him, I said, well, we all do have a choice,
but here's the problem. Left to our natural selves, we
will always make the wrong choice. No man can come to me, Christ
said, except the Father which has sent me draw him, and I'll
raise him up at the last day. You see, by nature, we'll always
make the wrong choice. There's none righteous, no, not
one. There's none that doeth good. There's none that seeketh
after God. That's us by nature. If left
to ourselves, we'll always make the wrong choice. There's two
choices. There's the broad road that leads to destruction, and
there's the narrow way that leads to life. Now, left to myself,
where would I be? The broad road that leads to
destruction. That's right. Thinking into myself
that it's a good way. Book of Proverbs says twice,
there's a way that seemeth right to a man, but it's the way of
death. Natural man is on the broad road
that leads to destruction, but he thinks it's the way of life.
That's how deceived and blind we are by nature. And it takes
the Spirit of God to give us spiritual eyes in life, to know
the difference, to make the right choice. by God-given faith. Well, what was Israel's choice? You know, if you think about
it, and all the things that they thought about under the law of
Moses, and they tried. Let me show you some scripture
here. Look at John chapter five. John chapter five. Now, remember
what we're talking about here. He says, their minds were blinded. For until this day, this is 2
Corinthians 3.14, their minds were blinded. For until this day there remaineth
the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament."
Paul's saying, look, back then, when they would read the Law
of Moses, their minds were blinded. There was a veil over their heart.
And he said even in his day, When he was writing here to the
Corinthian church, the Jewish unbelievers, they would read
the Old Testament and they would teach the Gentiles to read it,
but their minds were still blinded. The veil was still not taken
away. And here's what he says here
in John 5. This is the Lord speaking to the Pharisees who read the
writings of Moses, the Old Testament. And he says in verse 39, now
listen to this. John 5, 39. He says, search the
scriptures. Now, this construction here,
this sentence, it could read this way. You do search the scriptures. Christ is saying, I know you
read your Bibles. Many of you out there, I know you read your
Bibles. And he says in verse 39, for
in them you think you have eternal life. And they are they which
testify of me. What he's saying is that you
read your Bibles and you think you have eternal life, but you
need to understand the message of the Bible is Jesus Christ
crucified and raised from the dead for the salvation of his
people, for righteousness, for forgiveness. That's what they
missed. And he says here, look at verse
40, he says, and you will not come to me. that you might have
life. They didn't make the right choice.
Why? Because the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. He says in verse 41,
I receive not honor from men, but I know you, verse 42, that
you have not the love of God in you. He says, I'm come in
my Father's name and you receive me not. If another shall come
in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe
which receive honor one from another, one of another, and
seek not the honor that cometh from God only? How in the world
can you believe when you're concerned with the honor and the reputations
of men rather than the glory of God? He says in verse 45,
listen to this, do not think that I will accuse you to the
Father. There's one that accuseth you, even Moses in whom you trust. Now they didn't trust the man
Moses to save them, but they're trusting in their obedience to
the law of Moses. And he says, had you believed
Moses, verse 46, had you believed Moses, you would have believed
me, for he wrote of me. Moses wrote of Christ. But if
you believe not his writings, how shall you believe my words?"
The veil that was over their heart was self-righteousness.
And back over here in 2 Corinthians 3.14, he says, "...their minds
were blinded, for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken
away in the reading of the Old Testament." And listen to this.
Which veil is done away in Christ? When you see the glorious person
in the finished work of Christ, let me show you one more scripture
here. Look at Romans chapter nine. And look down at verse
31. Paul is summarizing Israel's
whole problem under the law of Moses, that veil that was over
their heart, their blindness. And he says, but Israel, verse
31, which followed after the law of righteousness, they wanted
to be righteous. That's what we have to be to
get into heaven. We have to be righteous. But how are we going
to be righteous? They hath not attained to the
law of righteousness. They strove for righteousness,
but they didn't make it. Verse 32 says, wherefore, or
why? Because they sought it not by
faith. What is to seek righteousness
by faith? It's to seek it and find it in Christ. And he says,
but as it were by the works of the law, for they stumbled at
that stumbling stone. Now the stumbling stone is a
reference to Isaiah 28 and the prophecy of Christ. They were
seeking righteousness not by faith in Christ, not by looking
to Christ and resting in Christ. They were seeking righteousness
by their works and they didn't make it. for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God." We've missed the mark.
And they stumbled at Christ. Look at verse 33 of Romans 9.
As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and
rock of offense, and whosoever believeth on him, Christ shall
not be ashamed or confounded. Look at verse 10, verse 1, What
knowledge is missing? Verse 3, And going about to establish
their own righteousness by their works now, have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God, and what I quoted before, verse
four, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to
everyone that believeth. You see, the whole Old Covenant
was given to show them their sinfulness, their depravity,
and the impossibility of being righteous, being saved, being
forgiven by their works. And it was given as a schoolmaster
to bring them to the time of Christ, to whom they were to
look by faith as the fulfillment of all righteousness. And until
a sinner is brought to see the glory of Christ and His righteousness,
His blood, the grace of God in salvation by Him, conditioned
on Him, That veil remains. That blindness is there. And
it'll stay there. When you read the Bible, even
when you read the New Testament, if you don't see the glorious
gospel of God's free and sovereign grace through the blood of Christ,
His righteousness alone, And so, there's a veil over your
heart, a veil of ignorance, darkness, self-righteousness. And he says
in verse 15 of 2 Corinthians 3, but even unto this day when
Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. The veil is upon
their mind, their affections, their will, their consciences. You take, for example, when people
get to feeling guilty in their conscience, what do they do to
soothe their conscience? Oh, they may rededicate, they
may get baptized, they may walk an aisle, they may get busy in
church, but it doesn't last. Sooner or later, the old guilt
comes back, and it keeps on coming and coming. You see, that's the
veil. But when you turn to Christ,
when God turned me to Christ, that's when the veil is taken
away, that's when the light shines, that's when I have eyes to see,
ears to hear, heart and a mind to follow Him and to believe
in Him and to rest in Christ. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. That's what Christ
said. It's all about Christ. the glory of His person as God
manifests in the flesh, and the power of His finished work. I
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 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia, 31707. Contact us by
phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through
our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.