Second Corinthians 3.13. 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, but their minds
were blinded, for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken
away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done
away in Christ. Notice the words Old Testament.
There's a veil, but it's done away in Christ. But even unto
this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their hearts.
Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be
taken away. Now the Lord is that spirit, and where the spirit
of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face, beholding
as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same
image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Now our brother just read about
beholding the glory of the Lord and how appropriate to our message
tonight because we're speaking of the old covenant and the new
covenant. You remember what Paul's been
talking about, the abolishment of the old covenant of works
and how that the greater revelation of God's glory, the glory that
excelleth is in the new covenant, which is the gospel. The new
covenant is the gospel. The good news is that there's
a way to be righteous with God that doesn't depend on you. It's
just so because of what Christ did and who he is for you. And
this is not ancient history. This is not Bible history lesson
we're talking about. Most of the people, almost everybody
in this world is on the standing of the old covenant before God
tonight. They are on a standing before
God, their relationship with God, their acceptance with God
is based on something they did or continue to do. That's the
old covenant, this do and live. That was the statement that God
made concerning the old covenant. But the new covenant is Christ,
it's seen in Christ, it's from beautiful picture our brother
read. Moses said, show me your glory. He had just gotten the
law. The Lord was giving him the law and it was great, his
face shown. And Paul talks about that, the
glory of the old to have God's very heart revealed, his holiness
revealed. But Moses yet thirsted for a
sight of the glory of God. And the only place he could see
that is in the cleft of the rock. Only by standing on Christ and
in Christ can a sinner see God's glory, the glory that excelleth. And so we're talking about tonight,
almost everybody in this world is on a standing of works before
God. They're under the old covenant,
whether they even know what that is or not. And God's remnant,
as Paul expresses in Romans where we've been looking, by the grace of God, see, are
shown God's glory in Christ. God puts our feet on the rock,
the rock of ages, and hides us under the shadow of Christ. And from there, we see God's
true glory, how his law is satisfied by Christ. God's law has never
been satisfied by a sinner, ever. Even when we keep the law, we're
not keeping the law. There's sin mixed with it. There's
evil motive. There's just a falling short.
We've never in thought, word and deed ever done a single righteous
thing in our lives and we're not fixing to. That's the glory
of the new covenant. Christ did that. He is that for
us. And that's what this is talking
about. God's glory is only truly seen in Christ who is himself
the gospel, the mediator of the new covenant. His blood is the
blood of the new covenant, the covenant of grace that's older
than the old covenant, because God made that covenant with himself
before the world began, before Moses ever gave the Mosaic law.
And Paul has just written in verse 12 that since we preach
that gospel of the new covenant, and since that gospel is the
only hope for sinners, And such a hope it is, such a glory. It's the hope that sinners have. And so we're very plain in our
speaking about it. We're very clear and bold in
our speaking, preaching the simplicity that's in Christ. The simplicity,
the all-inclusiveness that's in Christ. Christ is my righteousness
before God. We're not under the law, Paul
said in another place, but under grace. the covenant of grace,
wherein Christ has fulfilled all that God required for us.
Now in the effort to make that clear, Paul uses an illustration
in the text that we read between verses 13 and 18 here, and speaks
of how that veil that was on Moses' face, when he came down
out of the mountain having received the law, the 10 commandments,
but the scripture says that God met with Moses face to face as
with a friend. And it had an effect on him.
His face glowed and the people couldn't even look at him when
he came down out of that mountain. They didn't want to hear from
God. They said, you go speak to God for us and come tell us
what he said. Because when you're on a footing of law
before God, there's no acceptance. You're outside the veil. The
veil covered his face, and that veil pictures a veil that's on
the heart of the Jews to this very day. They're still, again,
this is not Bible history. The Jews are under the old covenant
of works to this day, generally speaking. But that veil on Moses' face,
let's read about that. But in their rejection of Christ,
now, today, at this present time, they reject the new covenant
of grace in Christ's blood And so there's a veil on their hearts
like the veil on Moses' face. In Exodus 34, let's read about that veil. You see how appropriate
it was for Brother Jason to read that. You're not gonna see God's
glory until you're in Christ. That's the only vantage point.
On a footing of law, you can't see that glory that exceleth. 34 27 exodus 34 27 And the Lord said unto Moses
right now these words for after the tenor of these words I have
made a covenant with thee and with Israel and he was there
and With the Lord 40 days and 40 nights, he didn't either eat
bread nor drink water. You remember when the Lord said
to those people that were hungry, they don't need to go anywhere.
He used bread and fish to feed them then, but if you have Christ,
you don't need to go anywhere else. You don't need anything
else. God made it so he didn't need anything, but the Lord's
presence in favor. 40 days, and he wrote upon the tables,
the last part of verse 28, the tables, the words of the covenant,
the old covenant, the 10 commandments, this do and live, do this, don't
do that. And it came to pass, verse 29,
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 face shone while
he talked with him. 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. 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 them, he put a veil on his face. 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 him. So in verse 13 of our text, Paul
describes the problem of the veil. They could not see. They
could not see the end of that which was abolished, he says.
They could not see the end of that which was abolished. What
was abolished? The old covenant. They couldn't
see the purpose of it. They couldn't see the goal of
it. You can't understand the old covenant until God reveals
the new covenant. Until then, you're gonna think
the old covenant is a way for you to do good stuff and be accepted
of God. That's not it. Paul said, you
that would be under the law, don't you hear the law? You're
condemned by it. By the law is the knowledge of
sin, not the putting away of sin. So the only way to really,
they couldn't see the end of the old because you have to have
the new revealed. and to understand the purpose
of the old. All of the Jews thought that
they could keep the Old Testament statutes, at least outwardly,
do their best, you know, and that God would be pleased with
them. And Paul said, by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be
justified in the sight of God. He said the law was given so
that you would shut up and take your place guilty before God.
Not so that you'd be a better person. You're not gonna be a
better person. You're gonna be accepted in Christ
or you're not gonna be accepted. So they couldn't see the end
of that which was abolished, the old covenant, the vain hope
of every sinner that God can be pleased with anything
that they do. In thought, word, or deed, the free will, in other
words, I've got a free will, I can do this and do that. Well,
you can sin, that's what you can do. And the Antichrist religion
of man, it's the Old Covenant, that's all it is. What was it that the veil did
not allow them to see? What is the end of the Old Covenant? It's word for word, Romans 10,
one through three, isn't it? We'll read that in a second,
but listen, Christ's glory that shone in Moses' face. Moses was
the mediator between God and the people, picturing Christ
in that same character spiritually. The mediator between God and
men. The people said, don't, we can't speak to God. That's
true. Not without a mediator. And Moses was that mediator then,
picturing Christ. No man cometh unto the Father,
Christ said, but how? By me, by me. So Moses was that
mediator, picturing Christ. There's one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. But the people
could not see that which is called in our text the end of the old
covenant. Remember Romans 10, let's turn
over there. Romans 10, hold your place there
at Exodus 34. Actually, we won't look back.
We'll just look at our text in 2 Corinthians. We won't go back
to Exodus, I don't believe, tonight. But look at Romans 10.1. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear
them record that they have a seal of God, but not according to
knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes." He's
not only the termination of the, me thinking that I can keep the
law and be righteous, that's over. But also he's the goal
of the law. He's the purpose God gave the
law, was to show that we can't keep it, that we need a savior,
we need a redeemer. We need a righteousness before
God and we don't have any. So look at verse five, for Moses
describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the
man which doeth those things shall live by them. But we've
never done one thing right. One thing that measured up to
the glory of God, all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. And so that glory that's shown,
they could hear the law, But they couldn't see the one who
gave it, or why he gave it. As a schoolmaster to bring us
to Christ, you see in picture now, they couldn't even, Moses
stood face to face with God, picturing Christ, but not the
people, because they're under a covenant of law. You're not
gonna see him that way. It was a schoolmaster to bring
us to Christ. Now look with me at 1 Timothy 1. I don't wanna wear you out tonight,
but I want us to understand that when you're talking to your friends,
people that you love that don't know the Lord, this is their
problem. They think that God is pleased
with them because of something they did or something they're
doing, the way that they're living or something. God abolished that. There is a glory that excelleth
and you're not gonna see God any other way. except in Christ. I'm glad you read that, Brother
Chase. What a beautiful picture that is. You're not going to
see God's glory until God puts you in His Son. 1 Timothy 1.8, But we know that
the law is good if a man use it lawfully, knowing this, that
the law is not made for a righteous man. If you weren't a sinner,
you wouldn't need a law. The reason there's no law against
flying around in the sky and messing up the clouds is because
we can't do that. Flapping your arm, there's no
law against that. But the reason there's a law against driving
drunk or driving too fast, that's what we do. We break that. We do that bad thing and people
get killed. So there's a law. It's not made
for righteous men, it's made for sinners. But for the lawless and disobedient,
for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers
of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers,
for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers,
for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing
that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel
of the blessed God which was committed, to my trust. This
is gospel truth that you can't keep the law. That the law was
written because you're a sinner, not because you're a good person.
And I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled me, for
that he cannot be faithful, putting me into the ministry, who was
before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained
mercy because I did it ignorantly. And the grace of our Lord was
exceeding abundant with faith and love, which is in Christ.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, to save those
ones that the law were given to, to show that they're sinners
and not righteous. But Christ came to say to them,
and Paul said, I'm the worst one. So this veil now, verse
14 in our text, go back to 2 Corinthians 3, if you would, in verse 14. But their minds were blinded,
for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in
the reading of the old covenant, which veil is done away in Christ. The only way you're gonna see
God's glory, you can't see to the end of that covenant without
being introduced by the grace of God and the revelation of
God to the new covenant in Christ. So this veil now, for those who
still trust in their own law keeping, in their own righteousness,
there's not a veil on Christ's face. The mediator is preached
with great plainness. The glory of God is seen clearly
when it's revealed in Christ. It wasn't done in a corner. There's
no veil there, but the veil is on the hearts of those who insist
on trusting in themselves that they are righteous. Verse 15. But even unto this day, when
Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Those who are under
the law can't see Christ just as the face of the mediator was
hidden in picture from the Israelites at Sinai. but the veil's in a
different place now. Christ has revealed himself.
The new covenant is plainly revealed in a person. It's not that he
came down and told us about the new covenant. He came down and
he is the new covenant. He said, this is the new covenant
in my blood. So the problem is the same. They can't see the end of the
law for righteousness. That's what Paul said in Romans
10, which is Christ. Christ has revealed himself,
he's unveiled in the gospel, but sinners will not come to
him that they might have life because the veil of the old covenant,
as long as you're under that old covenant of law keeping before
God in your heart, is on your heart and you can't see the righteousness
of God in Christ alone. Verse 16, let's read verse 16.
Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be
taken away. Now, Moses' pictures here, and I think Paul is saying
that here, when Moses turned to the Lord, he took the veil
off. So he represents the believer in this sense. And Paul takes
advantage of that and builds upon that in his concourse with
him here. Notice again the wording, listen
to the wording of Exodus 34, 34. But when Moses went in before
the Lord to speak with him, he took the veil off until he came
out. So when it shall turn to the
Lord, the veil is done away. When you see God's glory in the
very faith, who do you think he was talking to? He was talking
to Jesus Christ. He was talking to the Son of
God there on that mountain. But that picture's how that when
a blind sinner turns away from the old covenant and sees the
very glory of God in the face of his son, the veil of unbelief
and self-trust and natural inability to know that which is spiritually
discerned is removed from that sinner's heart. And he speaks
with God face to face as with a friend in Christ. When the gospel is preached,
when God sends a preacher who is by his grace plain spoken
concerning Christ and who he is and what he did and why he
did it and what he accomplished for sinners on Calvary, God per
adventure will come to that sinner and take away that veil from
his heart. And so that face-to-face with
open face. This is how he was described
in Exodus 33 11. And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face
as a man speaketh with his friend. That's where we are in Christ. Verse 17 in our text, now the
Lord is that spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty, there's freedom. It's the Lord alone that can
take away the veil from the heart. The Lord is that spirit. You
must be born again of the spirit. You must be born from above.
You're not getting rid of that veil any other way. You're not
gonna figure it out. You're not gonna get smart. God's
got to take it away. And most importantly, this refers
back to verse three. Look at verse three of our text
in 2 Corinthians 3. 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. You see, again,
he's comparing the old with the new. The old covenant, the old
covenant law was written on tables of stone, but what was the new
covenant? We're gonna read from Hebrews 10 in a minute, that
the new covenant, he said, I'm not gonna write it on tables
of stone, not with ink, but on the heart, the fleshy tables
of the heart, verse three there. That's the new covenant. God's
gonna write his law on your heart so you know why the law was given.
You know what the law is for. You use the law lawfully. which
is to stand guilty before God and plead the mercy of God in
Christ and his precious blood. It's not complicated. So beautiful. Only the Lord, the Lord is that
spirit. And only he can take away that veil. Look how beautifully our text
embellishes verse three. How that it's not something that's
on tables of stone anymore when God saved him. It's not this
austere standard that you have to measure up to. And sinners
try to do that in the stupidest ways. I know because I was right
in the middle of it. Oh, we better not watch TV, somebody
might cuss on there. We better not go to that restaurant,
somebody served beer. You really think that's gonna
please God? Living the Christian life to
those who are under the old cabinet law is that kind of stupid stuff. Don't smoke now that your body's
the temple of the Lord. You really think that's talking
about physical things? When it says Christ dwells in
you. When Paul, in that context of
talking about your body being the temple of the Lord, where
he says, your body's not for fornication, it's for the Lord.
Obviously there's physical things involved, but that's a spiritual
truth. Don't live for yourself, live
for him. The Lord is that spirit, but
what a beautiful... At Sinai, God wrote his law on
tables of stone. You're not gonna see his glory
there, except that it reveals our guilt. It does reveal his
holiness, his perfect standard of holiness, and how far short
we fall. But think of those tables of
stone and how God must have written that with his own finger, it
says. Moses witnessed that. He talked with him as a friend.
But listen to the promise of the new covenant in Hebrews 10,
if you wanna turn there, 10, 16. Like verse three in our text
says, not on tables, not written with ink, but on fleshy tables
of the heart. Hebrews 10 and verse 16. This is the covenant that I will
make with them after those days, sayeth the Lord, I will put my
laws into their hearts. When Moses said, you that would
be under the law, don't you hear the law? You're gonna hear the
law when God writes it on your heart. You're gonna hear what
it does. It condemns you. It drives you
to Christ. It reveals Christ too. It points
to Christ, doesn't it? You remember when God gave his
law, was there something about a mercy seat in there? Was there
something about blood splashed upon the mercy seat to make atonement
at one minute between the sinner and God? The law didn't school master
us to Christ just by showing us how guilty and hopeless we
are, that's definitely part of it. But it pointed, it showed
us clearly God's way of salvation. This is the covenant, I'll put
my laws into their hearts and in their minds while I write
them, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no
more. that without the shedding of
blood, there's no remission of sins. But that law, when it's
written on the heart, what does it do? You remember when Paul
in Romans 7, he's saying, I love the law of God after the inward
man. That's because it was written on his heart. But what was his
conclusion? Who's gonna save me from the
body of this death? I love God's law, but how to
perform that, which is good, I find not. Who's gonna save me? I thank
God through Jesus Christ, my Lord. That's the new covenant right
there. That's the promise of the new covenant. As long as
the law is to you just a list of commandments on tables of
stone or on some plaque on your wall, a standard to be met, and
you deluded into thinking that you can meet that standard, you
will never see God's glory. It's revealed in the face of
his son. But when God writes his law in
your heart and you truly desire to keep the law perfectly, you're
gonna understand that there's one way to do that. You want
to honor God's law, don't you, if you're a believer? But now that it's written on
my heart, I understand that I can only honor God's law one way.
That's by believing on Christ who kept it. By receiving Christ
as my righteousness before God. If I try to keep God's holy law
in order to please God, that's a disgrace to God's law. That's
not honoring the law. That's to presume that God in
his holiness on his holy throne, that I can measure up somehow
to His holiness, that I can be as holy as He is. That's to trample underfoot the
blood of His Son. If I offer God my filthy rags
in lieu of righteousness, I haven't honored God's law. The way I
honor the law is by saying, God, be merciful to me. I'm a lawbreaker. I'm a sinner, have mercy on me.
Be propitious unto me on the mercy seat. With spiritual understanding,
we will honor God's law the only way that it can be honored, by
faith in Christ, by Christ himself and us united to him. The people of Israel religiously
tried to outwardly at least observe that inflexible law under the
old covenant. But the only place that God's
glory was ever seen among them, you think about this, all they
did was, oh, the statutes, read the statute, your children, teach
them to your children. Oh, we can't do, we can't even
go mow the grass on Sabbath. It's the day of, we can't do
that. We gotta do this, we gotta do that, we gotta eat this, we
gotta light these, we gotta do all this stuff. It's all been
perverted down through the years. I got some weird stuff now that
never was in the word of God. But it's all about that. But
never was God's glory ever seen by them anywhere else but on
the mercy seat. You've got a whole culture that's
all about law. Law, law, law. But God never shows them his
glory anywhere but on the mercy seat where the blood of God's
lamb is poured out. We're not gonna see it anywhere
else either. This was exactly what that publican
cried out for when he said, God be propitious to me at the mercy
seat. I am a sinner. We with open face
behold the glory of the Savior and how that he is the end of
the law for righteous. We can see to the end of that
which is abolished, can't we? When we see Christ. He's the mediator of the new
covenant. He's our only righteousness and our only sin offering. He's
our mercy seat where God meets with sinners and communes with
them there. You don't want God to meet you anywhere else but
there. Our faces will shine with his
glory as Moses' face did. Not visibly, but by God's grace
in Christ were new creatures in him. Think about it. When
Moses' face shone, it wasn't because he got holier somehow.
That was God's glory shining in his face. That pictures us
as believers. He wasn't personally more holy.
That wasn't the reason his face shone. But he certainly wasn't
the same after he beheld the glory of Christ. That glory that
excelleth and neither are Recently, when I quoted verse
18 of our text in another message, I told you flat out that I don't
know what it means, and I'm not gonna pretend to now, but here's
what we do know about verse 18. Beholding as in a glass the glory
of the Lord, we're changed into the same image from glory to
glory. Again, Moses wasn't personally
more holy from seeing the glory of God, and we're not either,
but we are different, we are changed, just like he was. And as glorious as that change
is, as glorious as it is to be unveiled and see our Savior in
this life, we're yet gonna be changed. So it may indicate from
the glory here of knowing Him to the glory of being with Him
face to face. Sure enough, the glory that excelleth
even now the glory of the gospel of the blessed God, the glory
that has shone in our hearts that we might see God's son in
his glory to the glory of his presence. Maybe that's glory
to glory, I don't know. I can't say I know that, but
that's gonna happen. That is happening, that's true,
and that's glorious. The glory of being like him and
the glory of being with him is greater than the glory that we
behold now in his face by faith But the point of our text, the
whole movement of the text, the whole goal is revealed to be
the ability to see. Isn't that what this is talking
about? They couldn't see because of a veil. To look into the face
of that one mediator and see God's glory without a veil in
between, unveiled. And certainly as we grow in grace
and in the knowledge of Christ, we see that glory clearer and
clearer. And then one day face to face,
but I know this, here's what I know. I don't know if any of
that is exactly what this refers to or not. But whatever this
being changed from glory to glory means, the glory is Christ. And it has something to do with
me seeing him. Doesn't it? That's undeniable. The glory is a person. And this
change from glory to glory has something to do with me seeing
him, because that's what this whole text is about. Seeing him,
seeing God's glory in him. And it has something to do with
me being like him, doesn't it? And I reckon that's all I need
to know about that. What do you think? We're gonna see him, we
see him, who are gonna see him because of his precious blood. Amen, let's pray.