out here counting us to start
on time. So, even though we're all having
a good time talking with each other. Well, good morning. Let's
open this morning's service with the hymn from our hardback timnal,
hymn number 21. I don't know that we've done
this together. The hymn is a good, it's a familiar tune. So let's
all stand together. Hymn number 21 in your hardback. We gather together to ask the
Lord's blessing. He chastens and hastens His will
to make known. The wicked, oppressing, now cease
from distressing. Sing praises to His name. He forgets not His own. Beside us to guide us, our God
with us joining, ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine. So from the beginning, the fight
we were winning, Thou, Lord, was at our side, all glory be
Thine. We all do extol thee, thou leader
triumphant, and pray that thou still our defender wilt be. Let thy congregation escape tribulation. Thy name be ever praised. O Lord, make us free. Please be seated. That was new. I don't think we've
ever sang that hymn before. Thank you, Tom. Good morning. We're going to continue our study
in 2 Corinthians. If you'd like to turn with me
there in your Bibles to chapter 3, 2 Corinthians chapter 3. A couple of announcements. I
mentioned this last Sunday, the 11th, 12th, and 13th of March,
we have planned a conference in Sarasota. And we'll be meeting
on Friday night, the 11th, Saturday morning, the 12th, and then Sunday
night, the 13th. So Cody Gruber's going to be
preaching in that meeting, and also Dennis Fitzton and Cody
will be coming over here to preach for us on Sunday morning, and
then we'll go back Sunday night. We didn't realize until after
we scheduled the meeting that that's spring break, and so the
hotels that are available, which are very few over there, are
very expensive. So if you want to come, you probably
need to drive back and forth, unless you can find a place over
there. So that's the plan. And I hope that as many of you
as can come will come and be an encouragement to the church
over in Sarasota. Okay, tomorrow night the men
are going to get together at our house, so those of you that
are able to come and be a part of that, please do. All right,
let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we have
come into this place with hopes of worshiping Thee. But even as we hope for that,
we know, Lord, that we are completely dependent upon You to enable
us to that end. We ask, Lord, that You would
send Your Spirit in power. We pray that You would enable
us to to lift up Christ and then to see him. Lord, that you would
bid us to come unto thee, that you would draw us into thy presence. We pray that you would speak
peace and hope and comfort to our hearts as we look to the
Lord Jesus Christ as our savior, our advocate, our sin bearer,
our righteousness, all our justification before thee. Oh Lord, cause him
to be the focus of all our worship. We ask it in his name. Amen. We'll begin reading in verse
one of second Corinthians chapter three. Do we begin again to commend
ourselves, or need we, as some others, epistles of commendations
to you, or letters of commendation from you? You are our epistle,
written in our hearts, known and read of all men, forasmuch
as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ,
ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit
of the living God. Now, I've titled this study,
The Letter versus the Spirit. And my hope is that the Lord
will be pleased to bless us with His Spirit and to cause us to
worship Him in spirit and in truth. He's the only one that
can do that. And we are completely dependent
upon His Spirit for that. with the spirit of the living
God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the
heart. And such trust have we through
Christ to Godward, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to
think anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God,
who also has made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of
the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the
Spirit giveth life." Turn with me, if you will, to John chapter
5. There's an illustration here
in John chapter 5 of the letter versus the Spirit. We just read God said, the letter
killeth. But the Spirit giveth life. Now I'm interested in that which
gives life. And I want to avoid that which
kills. The Lord said the letter. The letter killeth, but the Spirit
giveth life. You have your Bibles open to
John chapter 5, look at verse 39. Search the Scriptures, for
in them you think that you have eternal life. And they are they
which testify of me. Now the Pharisees were very diligent
students of the Bible. And that's who the Lord's talking
to. And he's saying to them, you search the scriptures. You're
very good at parsing the verbs. You're very good at quoting the
verses. You're very good at debating
theology. You know the letter of the law. You know the letter of the scripture. But the letter killeth. It's
the spirit that giveth life. You have studied the scriptures
diligently, but you've missed the message. Look what he goes
on to say. And you will not come to me that
you might have life. I receive not honor from men,
but I know you, that you have not the love of God in you. I
am 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 and seek not the
honor that cometh from God only. You love the praise of men rather
than the praise of God. You love debating the Bible. You love promoting yourself above
your peers. But you have no love for God.
That's what the Lord is saying. Oh, I don't want that to be true
of me. It has been true of me. This was my experience. I knew
the letter of the law. I knew the letter of the scriptures.
I knew some doctrine and some theology and did not know Christ. Do not think that I will accuse
you to the Father. There is one that accuseth you,
even Moses, in whom you trust. The letter killeth, the Spirit
giveth life. They were trusting in their law-keeping. They were trusting in their understanding
of the scriptures without trusting Christ. Is that still going on
today? Yes. Yes. For had you believed Moses, you
would have believed me for he wrote of me. When Moses wrote the letter of
the law, he was writing about Christ. Men in their darkness
will substitute anything for Christ. And so the Lord says,
if you really believed Moses, you'd believe me, because he
wrote about me. But if you believe not his writings, and that's
the word for letters, if you believe not his writings, how
shall you believe my words? You don't even believe what you
say you believe, is what the Lord's saying. You say you believe the
scriptures, but if you did believe them, you would be trusting me,
and you're not. When we read these passages of
scriptures, heartfelt experience is not to
point our fingers at those who are outside of Christ, but to
understand these as warnings for ourselves. Lord, I don't
want to be a Bible student who misses Christ. I don't want to
be one who contends over words and misses the living word of
God. I could do that. I could debate. I could argue. I could defend
a proper doctrine, a proper theology, and miss the Lord Jesus Christ.
And God says the letter killeth. It is the Spirit that giveth
life. I could be consumed with doctrine
and miss the doctrine. That word doctrine means teaching. I could be consumed with teaching
and miss the teacher. These are they which testify
of me. Lord, I need your Spirit. to open the eyes of my understanding.
I need Him to point me to Christ. I need Him to hold up the Lord
Jesus Christ for me, for my life is not in my knowledge. It's
in Christ. Christ who is our life. I could be intrigued with history
and not see that it is his story. I can do that. How do I know
I can do that? Because I have done that. I have
done that. And if the Lord's not merciful
to me, I'll go back to doing that. Why? Because if God doesn't cause
me to love his praise, I will love the praise of men more than
the praise of God. Committed to theology, And yet
not knowing the living God ever learning and never able to come
to the knowledge of the truth increased in knowledge, but becoming
a fool in one's heart towards God. Now that's what, that's
what Paul's talking about. He's talking about preaching
Christ. I didn't come to hold up a doctrine. I didn't come
to debate theology. I came to preach the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed, and I'm persuaded that He is able, He is able to keep
that which I've committed unto Him against that day. I've committed
everything to Him. I've got all my eggs in one basket. I'm not hedging my bets. I'm
not hoping that, well, somehow my law-keeping or my understanding
or my knowledge is going to add one thing to my salvation. All the hope of my salvation
is bound up in the accomplished work and glorious person of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The letter killeth. It is the
spirit that giveth life. You can believe in the sovereignty
of God. I've met plenty of folks who
believe or they say they believe, like those Pharisees, in the
sovereignty of God and not know the God that is sovereign. You can teach classes and preach
sermons on total depravity and never have been made a sinner.
This is the difference. The letter killeth. If we're
satisfied with our understanding of the letter, apart from the
ministry, that's what Paul says, he's talking about the ministration
of the Holy Spirit. Apart from the ministry of the
Holy Spirit. I hope this is causing you to do what it's causing me
to do. Lord, don't let me fall short of knowing Christ. Don't, don't, don't let, make,
make me to be a sinner. I've met plenty of folks who
say they believe in limited atonement and yet they have no atonement
for their own sin. Why? Because they don't know
the one who has made the atonement. I want to know Christ. I want
to know Him. Now here's the thing about it. You can have all the right doctrine
and not have Christ. Does that diminish the importance
or the truthfulness or the veracity of doctrine? No, not in any way.
Because if you've got Christ, you're going to have right doctrine.
But you can have one without the other, but you can't have
the other without the one. Let's look again at that verse
six. Who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament. It's new in revelation. It's new in time. It's new in
fulfillment. And he says, Not of the letter,
but of the spirit, for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth
life. You can believe in the doctrine
of irresistible grace and remain a stranger to grace. Turn with
me to Romans chapter 2. Look at verse 28, for he is not
a Jew, which is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision,
which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew, which is one
inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart. in the Spirit
and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of
God." Men will pride themselves on
having right doctrine. Men will pride themselves on
being able to defend their theology. The Lord said a true Jew is not
the one who's circumcised in the flesh. That's all that is. The flesh, the scripture says,
profiteth nothing. It is the spirit that giveth
life. Go back with me to the first
verse of chapter three. This is the world I came out
of. This is the world that many of you came out of. The Lord
allowed us to walk down the dusty, lifeless road of Calvinistic
doctrine before we met Christ. Verse 1 of chapter 3, do we begin
again to commend ourselves or need we as some others epistles
of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? Do
we need to promote ourselves with our degrees and with our
titles? Do we need to send out resumes
in order to secure a good position in the church? That's what he's
talking about. And that's exactly what's happening
in religion today. Exactly what's happening. And
the worst thing that ever happened to the church was the invention
of the seminary. The promotion of knowledge over
truth. That's what Paul said, and he
said, do we need to, like other men do, do we need to send out
resumes? Do we need to tell you what our
degrees are and what our diplomas are? Do we need to advance ourselves
among our peers? No, there's no place for that
in the gospel. Look at verse 2. You are our
epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men. Now here's what Paul's saying.
If we weren't preaching the gospel, you wouldn't be saved. The evidence
that we are sin of God, the evidence that God has enabled us to preach
the gospel is your salvation. Now the flip side to that coin
is that if we're not preaching the gospel, no one's going to
be saved. And that's the truth. God doesn't use a lie to save
anyone. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
comes by the Word of God, and this is the Word of God, which
by the Gospel is preached unto you. If the Gospel is not being
preached, the Word of God is not being preached. I don't care
how much... You know, the Pharisees, they searched the Scriptures.
We've already looked at that. They were diligent students of
the Bible. A lot of folks there today. They can tell you all the doctrine,
all the theology, and quote the verses, and... compete with anyone, and they
don't know Christ. And there's no salvation. Why
did we start this church almost 20 years ago? For what reason did we start
this assembly? Why are we here this morning?
Why are you here? We weren't interested in creating
a division among God's people. That would be the most evil reason
for starting a church, to just divide ourselves from others
who are preaching the same message, maybe with a little different
emphasis, but nevertheless, they're promoting the truth of the gospel
as well. It'd be evil for us not to seek
unity with them if they were preaching the gospel. We didn't
start this church in order to bring men to a higher view of
the gospel. We have a better angle on doctrine,
and we're going to present it in a way that's a little bit
better than other churches present the gospel. That's not why we
did this. We're not here to, we didn't
start this church in order to appeal to a different segment
of society. A lot of churches start that
way. They have a target audience. They have a certain group of
people that they want to try to attract into their assembly
and so they start a new assembly in order to do that. That's not
why we started this assembly. Look at our assembly. We don't have a target audience here.
There's a mixture of so many different walks of life represented
in our assembly. We didn't start this assembly
in order to maintain our traditions or to be faithful to a denomination. We certainly didn't start this
assembly so that we could be big fish in a little pond. Why did we start this assembly? For the salvation of God's people.
For the preaching of the gospel. If there's somebody else around
preaching, I want to know about it. Because I want to join hands
with them. I want to support them. And I
want them to support me. You are our epistle written in
our hearts, known and read of all men. Verse three, for as
much as you are manifestly declared to be 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. I love what Paul said in 1 Thessalonians
1 when he said, Our word, our gospel did not come unto you
in word only, but also in power, and in much assurance, and in
the Holy Ghost. Turn with me to that passage,
1 Thessalonians 1. Verse four, knowing brethren,
beloved your election of God. You've been chosen by God. Our
God's not, not running for office. I tell you, it's, it's a, it's
a shameful thing to watch what's going on among politicians. Isn't it? Uh, it's our God's
not that way. He may be that way. He may be
promoted that way in a lot of places, but not here. He reigns
sovereign. He's not trying to get votes
where he he's not the one that's elected. Most most places today,
they said, Well, you know, you've got to You've got to accept Jesus. You've got to vote for God. In
short, here's the message that's being preached outside of the
gospel. God's voted for you. The devil's
voted against you. You break the tie. Now let me
ask you a simple question. Who does that put on the throne
of God? Our God's not that way, is he?
He reigns sovereign. He's chosen a people according
to His own will and purpose before the world began. And our desire
is to lift Him up, to show what He's done and who He is. For
our gospel, verse 5, came not unto you in word only. We didn't come preaching doctrine.
We didn't come eloquently defining theology, debating the Bible. but also in power and in the
Holy Ghost and in much assurance as you know what manner of men
we were among you for your sake. And you became followers of us
as of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with
joy and the Holy Ghost. You believe the gospel, there's
gonna be some affliction. You're gonna experience some
affliction of your own. between your own two natures, the old
man and the new man, are going to be battling against one another,
the flesh against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.
If you believe the gospel, you're going to experience some affliction
in this world. You're going to find yourself
to be the odd man out. People don't believe the gospel.
So that ye were examples to all that believe in Macedonia and
Achaia, For from the sounding out of the word of the Lord,
not only in Macedonia and Ikea, but also in every place, your
faith to God were to spread about so that we need not speak anything
for they themselves show us of what manner of the entering in
we had unto you and how you turn to God from your idols to serve
the living and true God and to wait for his son from heaven,
who is raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us
from the wrath to come." Are you waiting for Him? Waiting
expectantly, waiting anxiously for Him to come and take you
home. That's what God's people do.
They've met Him. The Lord put it like this in
John chapter 17 verse 3, he said, and this is life eternal. Not that you're a Calvinist,
not that you are able to defend doctrine and promote theology. This is life eternal that they
might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou
has sent. Lord, I don't want to fall short
of that. I don't want to fall short of knowing thee. And Paul, late in life, said,
Oh, that I might know Him. I have not yet apprehended that
which has apprehended me, but this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind, I press towards the prize for
the high calling in Christ Jesus. He is the prize. He's the prize. He told Abraham, he said, I am
thine exceeding great reward. I'm your reward, Abraham. Paul
said, I want to know him. I want to know the fellowship
of his suffering. I want to know that when he died
on Calvary's cross that I was in him and that God is satisfied
with the sacrifice that he made for the putting away of all of
my sin. I want to know the power of his resurrection. I want to
know that he was offered up for my offenses and raised again
because of my justification, that I'm justified before God,
and that the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the firstborn
among many brethren, is the hope that I have for my own resurrection. That's my hope. Paul said, when
we came to you, we didn't come to you promoting ourselves. We
didn't come to you with doctrine. We didn't come to you with word
only. We didn't come to you with the
letter. We came to you with the power of the Spirit of God. And
the evidence that we came in the power of the Spirit of God
is your salvation. That's the evidence. God saved
you. God gave you faith to believe
Christ, to rest in Christ, to trust on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the evidence. Now go back
with me to our text. It's written on your heart. He's anointed you with the oil
of gladness. And David said in Psalm 23, He's
anointed my head with oil. That's the ministry of the Holy
Spirit. Verse 4, For such trust have
we through Christ to Godward. Our trust is not that we preach
the gospel. Our trust is not that you were
able to, our trust is in Christ. Our trust is that He enabled
us. He goes on to say who's sufficient for these things. Look what he
says in verse 5. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to
think anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.
The only reason we were able to preach the gospel is because
the Lord enabled us to preach the gospel. The only reason you
were able to believe the gospel is because God gave you faith
to believe the gospel. of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. Paul's talking about the ministry
of the Holy Spirit. This is not an intellectual thing.
This is not a matter of works or will or wisdom. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth. It is of God that showeth mercy.
Lord, I need you. I need the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ to manifest Himself on my heart and not for me to become satisfied
with some knowledge that I might have of Him. I need to know Him. Paul is saying this thing that
we are doing, this ministry that we are involved in, It's a ministry
empowered by the Spirit of God to the salvation of God's people
in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And all our sufficiency
is of Him. You don't have the sufficiency
to hear. You don't have the sufficiency to believe. I don't have the
sufficiency to speak. It's all of Him, and He gets
all the glory. Lord, how dependent we are on
thy spirit. Who also. Verse six hath made
us able ministers, able ministers. The Lord told the prophet Jeremiah,
I will give you pastors according to my heart, which shall feed
you with knowledge and understanding. Lord, that's what I need. I need
you to make me that way. I need you to feed my soul, that
I might have something to give to your people. Lord, I need
you to take my feeble attempts to try to declare the person
and work of Christ and make those words, make your word effectual
to the hearts of your people. I want this to be a heart thing
for you. I want it to be a heart thing for me. You can clean up
the outside of the cup. You can put on the religious
garb. You can pretend to be a Christian.
You can have all the outward behavior and you can have the
right speech. You can say the right words.
And you can do all that in the power of your own flesh and die and go to hell. And that's where most folks are.
And that's where you would be. And that's where I would be if
the Lord left us to ourselves. We would convince ourselves that
this act is real. We would compare ourselves to
ourselves and convince ourselves that we're getting better. We
would compare ourselves to other men and convince ourselves that
we were better. Oh, how dependent we are on the
Spirit of God that we not think too highly of ourselves. that
we see ourselves with all our sufficiency to be of Him. Not that we think too highly
of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. God, if you don't
choose me, if you don't cause me to come, if you don't make
me to believe, If you don't turn me, if you don't open the eyes
of my understanding, if you don't take out the heart of stone and
put in a heart of flesh, if you don't cause me to know Christ,
I will substitute Him with letters, with words, with doctrine, with
theology, with actions, with behavior, and I'll calm the fears
of my own heart. with those things. Our sufficiency is of God, who
also has made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of
the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth. There's the message. The letter
killeth. He's not talking about bad letters.
He's talking about the Word of God. That's what he's talking about.
The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. If we're ever content with thinking
that we've achieved some knowledge of the Bible, You search the scriptures because
you think in them you have eternal life. But these are they which
testify of me. Oh, Lord, don't let me miss thy
son. Don't let me miss Christ. I will. I have. All right, let's take a break. Thank you.