Second Corinthians three, verse
one. Do we begin again to commend
ourselves or need we as some others epistles of commendation
to you or letters of commendation from you? Let's talk about that
for a minute. Paul asked this question here
in verse one. after asserting in these last several verses
at the end of chapter two that the gospel that he preached,
that God's preachers preach, is always successful. We always
are triumphant. He said that he preached the
word of God and that he was not as many which corrupt the word
of God, but as of sincerity, as of God, in the sight of God,
speak we in Christ. So he was very firm about that.
The gospel we preach is the gospel. It's always successful, but he
qualifies all of that by insisting that he's not bragging about
that. He's not puffing himself up, as some might think, and
as he apparently had been accused of, as we see in other places
in this letter. But the gospel is not a triumph
because we're preaching it. The gospel is always a triumph
because of who we preach. And that's what Paul is saying,
as he confesses in verse two, we're able ministers of the gospel,
but that's God's doing. Not verse two, but a little bit
further down in the context here. Let's see, where was that? Anyway, he says we're able ministers
of the gospel because God made us that way. Our sufficiency is of God. What's
taught in verses two and three now, look at this. This is always
important to remember. You are our epistle written in
our hearts, known and read of all men. 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. That's verse six I was talking
about a minute ago. God hath made us. Our sufficiency
is of God, verse six, who also hath made us able ministers of
the New Testament. So you see what he's saying.
This is not boasting, but we want everybody to know this gospel
is a triumph. It's a win every time. It's always
a sweet-smelling savor of Christ unto God, no matter who's preaching
it. But here in verses two and three,
look at verse three. You're manifestly declared to
be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, But we write with ink,
but this letter that validates our preaching is not written
with ink. It's written by Christ with the spirit of the living
God, and not on tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
In other words, It was when Paul was alive exactly as it is now.
Men who don't have any business saying anything about God, much
less from a pulpit, come with commendations from men. They
come with paper, they come with letters, they come with impressive
credentials and a lot of pretense and hypocrisy. And the more flash
there is, the less substance there is. Paul said, we don't
need any of that. We don't need letters after our name, We don't
need recommendations. Religious leaders have to look
important to hide the fact that they're imposters. Paul said,
my gospel is not of man. It wasn't taught me by men, and
it's not concerning man, it's concerning Christ. But religious
so-called preachers, they crave the approval and commendations
of men because they're not approved of God. Would the gospel be more
precious to you if I was a doctor of theology? Would that mean
anything to you? If it would, then you're listening
to me for the wrong reason. That's what Paul's saying here.
You're our commendation. If the Lord blesses the gospel
to save sinners and to comfort His people, to feed His sheep,
and that happens in your heart, not on a piece of paper, that's
our letter. That's our approval. Our encouragement And you're our comment when he
says you are our commendation He's not saying that you brag
on us and that's enough It wasn't bragging at all in any way, but
that you were saved by the gospel that we preach. That's the sense
in which they are were Paul's commendation. The end game for
religion is earthly success. It's numbers, it's money, it's
buildings, it's a religious empire. The end game for God's preachers
is that sinners are saved and the sheep of God fed and comforted.
That's the principle here. It's not commendations and approvals
and degrees and spectacular earthly hullabaloo. It's what's going on in here.
What is God doing in the hearts of sinners? That's what a church
is. That's what we're doing. That's
what we're in it for. And then what God called us to.
Now in verse three again, he said, letters from men are written
with ink. And what do they say? They say
big things about a man. Our letter, Paul said, is written
by the spirit of God, on the heart, and it says big things
about Christ. What God writes on your heart
is a commendation of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's who he is,
not who this preacher is. A completely different matter. Notice how Paul calls it the
epistle of Christ, not the epistle of Paul. Paul's epistle that
language is used elsewhere, but he's talking about the epistle.
That's because Christ is the one exalted And not the man who
wrote it. He's the author of it and He's
the subject of it and his glory is the result of it. It's Christ's
epistle verse 4 Let's read verse 4 again and such trust have we
through Christ to God word we're confident about that and through
Christ before God. This is all part of the context
of where he's saying we're a sweet savor of Christ unto God. It's
his approval that we are interested in, not man's. Paul trusted and
we trust that the success of the gospel preached of at the
end of chapter two, that he spoke of how the gospel's a triumph,
it's always successful, and the effectual nature of the gospel,
unto those whom God saves by that means, it's not attributable
to us, but it's through Christ. It's what he's doing, not what
we're doing. We're doing what he's doing because he let us
in on it. This is like the disciples said about that layman, he said,
don't look at us as though we did something. In this layman,
this is the Son of God whom you crucified that has shed abroad
this here today. And that's true every time the
gospel is preached. This is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He said He'll commune with you here when two or three are made
in His name. His gospel is preached. The Holy
Spirit of God will take the things of Christ and reveal them to
you. And in that context, what did He call the Spirit of God?
The Comforter. The Comforter. We need that all
the time, don't we? We need his comfort. And that
comfort comes from knowing who Christ is and what he did for
us. Paul said in Galatians 1.10,
do I now persuade men or God? It's through Christ and it's
unto God. Not for the approval of men. If men write a letter and put
their name to it and say, you know, Paul's a great preacher,
what does that mean? Our confidence is through Christ
unto God, not men. Do I now persuade men or God?
Are we trying to get men to do something for God? Or is our
hope that God will do something for sinners? Or do I seek to
please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should
not be the servant of Christ. Verse five. Back in chapter three, verse
five, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything
as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. That verse elaborates
on verse four. Our confidence is through Christ
and it's unto God. And our trust that the ministry
and our preaching is always successful has nothing to do with our own
sufficiency. It's not based on that. That's
not how we gauge the success of the gospel. It's who we preach that makes
it a win every time. Not who's preaching it. We're
not sufficient at all. We are confident, but not in
our abilities. We're confident through Christ,
verse four. Paul asked the question at the end of chapter two, who
is sufficient for these things? And he answers it right here,
our sufficiency is of God. We rest in Him, we lean on Him,
we trust Him, not just in the preaching, not just in the worship
service, but everywhere we go, every day, all the time, in all
things, our sufficiency is of God. Could not preach this gospel
without the grace of God in Christ, and if we could We couldn't open
your heart to receive it If not for for God's grace, I'd
be preaching the false freewill Antichrist Whatever passes for
a gospel of this profane religious world We have no sufficiency of ourselves Verse six. Let's see, verse six. Who also hath made us able ministers,
this is the verse I was trying to find a while ago, of the new
covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit, for the letter
killeth, but the spirit giveth life. And we know what he means
by letter and spirit from verse seven, which we'll see in a minute,
but what he's saying here is don't brag on God's ministers,
but don't despise God's means either. When it comes to the
preachers of the gospel, all of the glory belongs to God and
also they're to be heard as ambassadors of Jesus Christ because of whose
name we come in. able minister, he makes us able
ministers. If he has a message for you and
he's gonna send a messenger, he's gonna send somebody, he
said, I'll give you pastors after my own heart. They're not gonna
think about themselves when they're preaching to me. They're not
gonna do it for earthly gain or pride or self-righteous. They're gonna do it out of love
for God's sheep and they're gonna tell you the truth. That's just
something God does. And I'm thankful for it, because
it would never happen any other way. Able ministers of the gospel,
but he hath made us able ministers of the gospel. He gets all the
glory, but don't despise the means. Don't despise what he
does, who he sends. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels, but we have this treasure. We have the treasure of God in
Christ. 2 Corinthians 5.20, now then, we
are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by
us, be you reconciled to God. That's the message we preach.
And it's, he's not saying it's kind of like God speaking to
you. He said, it's God speaking to
you. And what he's saying to you is come, let us reason together,
saith the Lord. Be ye reconciled to God. Come,
let us reason together. About what? Your sin. But though
your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. God calls sinners
to come to himself so he can reveal our sin and how that the
precious blood of Christ alone can wash it away. And we are his ambassadors in
that message. Now look what Paul says it is
that we minister back in verse six again. Look at what we minister,
not the letter, but the spirit. And again, what he refers to
here as the letter is the law. As we see in the next verse,
he's talking about the tables of stone, the law that was given
on Mount Sinai, the letter, the old covenant as opposed to the
new covenant, which he mentions in the same verse. Now, the letter
is said to kill because that's all the law can do to a sinner.
All the law can do is kill you or drive you to Christ. That's it. By the law is the
knowledge of sin, but there's no, by the deeds of the law,
there's no justification before God. It's said to kill, we are
condemned by that law. Our sin is revealed by that law.
And if we stand before God on the footing of the law, we will
forever perish. That's why it says that the letter
kills. It'll either kill you and put
you in hell or it'll kill self-righteous you and make a new you. By God's, or Christ will, the
Holy Spirit will give you a new heart, make you a new man. The Spirit is said to give life,
and understand in what sense the word Spirit is used here.
Of course the Holy Spirit is involved in that. The Holy Spirit
regenerates. He gives life as the Lord Jesus
taught Nicodemus in John 3. It's the spirit that blows where
he wills, and he gives life to whom he will. But this is the
sense in which he used the word spirit here, because he's talking
about the preaching of the gospel, remember. He's talking about
our message, the ministry that the Lord has given us. So turn
with me to John chapter six, and I believe we'll see in what
sense the word spirit is used in our text. It absolutely has
to do with the Holy Spirit, but look what the Lord says here
in John 6, 63. This is the specific sense, I
believe, in which Paul uses the word spirit there. John 6, 63,
our Lord Jesus talking to the religious Jews, He said, it is
the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. That's
the letter and the spirit. But what does he mean by spirit?
The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit. He's talking
about the spiritual nature of the gospel. All the law can do
is sit there on a table of stone and tell you what to do and what
not to do and condemn you if you know what the law actually
says in a spiritual sense. It can't do anything. It can't
give you life, spiritual life. But the words that I speak unto
you, they are spirit. And they are life. And look what
the disciples said. Let's read down a little bit
further. You know the context. But there are some of you that
believe not, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that
believed not and who should betray him. And he said, therefore said
I unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given
unto him of my father. And from that time, they demonstrated exactly what he
said. You can't come to me unless the father draw you. And sure
enough, they couldn't. They went back. and walk no more with him. But then said Jesus unto the
12, will you also go away? And then Simon Peter answered
him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. I believe that's the sense in
which Paul uses the word spirit. He's talking about the gospel
preached. And the Lord Jesus Christ said, the words that I
speak unto you, they are spirit. That's where spiritual life comes
from, the words of eternal life. The law can't give life. It just
reveals the extent of our death. But the gospel, the gospel and
the spirit, the spiritual truth of God in Christ is the words
of eternal life. Paul said to Timothy, that gospel
that's able to make you wise unto salvation. So you see the,
It's that word of Christ. The old covenant was up to us. You want it to be up to you,
like religion's always saying? Then keep the law. That's up
to you. God's not gonna keep the law
for you if your footing is law before him. If you believe on Christ, then
he did keep the law for you. But if you're on a footing of
law before God, it's up to you. The old covenant was this do
and live. The message of new covenant is
I will and you shall. It's not up to you, it's up to
him. That's why it works. That's why
it's successful. The requirement of the old covenant
is do. The blessing and message of the
new covenant is done. Look what he did, look what he
did for sinners. The old covenant was written
on tables of stone, as Paul refers to here. The new covenant is
written on the heart of a sinner. He said, I'll write my law on
your heart. And he does, and that's why Paul
was able to say, I delighted in the law of God after the inward
man, I can't keep it. So who's gonna save me? I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord, Romans chapter seven. The old covenant reveals the
problem, our sin. The gospel reveals the savior.
The law is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. The gospel
is Christ. Look at verses seven through
11. Let's read these together in our text. Verse seven. But we have, let's see, I keep
wanting to read from chapter four. Verse seven of chapter
three. But if the ministration of death,
written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children
of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for
the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away,
how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation
be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness
exceed in glory. For even that which was made
glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory
that exceleth. The gospel reveals the glory
that excels that of the law. For if that which is done away
was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious. Now Paul clearly describes here
what he calls the ministration of death as the giving of the
law. Mount Sinai and the glory of
God revealed there. His glory indeed was revealed
there. They couldn't even look at it. They couldn't look at
the mountain. There was glory there because it's the law of
God. The law is not evil, you are.
The fact that the law can't save you is not an indictment against
the law, it's an indictment against you. God's law is glorious, because
he is glorious. But look at what he says, Mount
Sinai, there was glory revealed there, and we don't make void
the law by the preaching of the gospel, Paul said, yea, we establish
the law. It's only Christ fulfilling the
law for his people, and paying our sin debt where we've broken
the law, that's the only way that the law is honored. He's
the only one that ever honored the law. And that happens by
the gospel, by Christ crucified, not by your obedience. So we don't make void the law
when we preach the gospel, we establish the law. It's only
by the gospel that the law is honored and glorified in Christ.
Sinai was a place of God's glory in so much that the children
of Israel could not even look at it. And Sinai's glory is not
diminished by the gospel. It's not replaced by the gospel.
It just excels the glory of the law. It includes that glory, but there's much
more glory. What the law could not do and
that it was weak through our flesh, God sent his son to do.
And that's the glory that exceleth. It's Christ honoring the law,
not getting rid of the law, not retracting the law. He honored
the law. He kept the law. He observed
the law in thought, word, and deed perfectly. So you see the
glory of Sinai is not replaced. It's just excelled. Notice that
he says, in this sense, in this sense, it was done away. Not
that God's law is done away, but in this sense it is, by the
glory that excella. Because that law given to us
to keep, there's no glorification in that, there's no glory in
that, there's no success in that, we can never do it. God's not
gonna be honored that way. And so it's that as a covenant
unto us that's done away with. That's not how sinners can be
saved. By the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified
in God's sight. So that old covenant was done
away with, but not the law. Sinai's glory is not diminished.
That was the glory of God there that was shining that they couldn't
look at, but the glory of the gospel exceeds that of Sinai
because though God's glory is revealed in the law, God's greatest
glory is his love and mercy towards sinners. and included in that is Christ
obeying the law. If God had merely given his law
and all sinners were condemned by it and went to hell for it,
would God not still be glorious? It wouldn't diminish his glory
at all. Ah, but bless God, while Moses was yet on Mount Sinai,
he's still up there. He was up there for 40 days and
nights, I believe it was. And he's still up there and God
said, make a mercy seat. Make a mercy seat. You see the
glory of that? That's the glory that excella. He gave us the law and said,
don't do this and do this. And before we even broke it,
he said, make a mercy seat. the mercy seat that contained
the law, the preserved law of God inside that ark, which was
under the mercy seat. And that's Exodus 25, 17. While
Moses was yet in Mount Sinai, thou shalt make a mercy seat.
His law is given, but there's mercy for sinners, for those
who break that law. There's gonna be mercy. I'm gonna
have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. And inside the ark, under
that mercy seat was the law of God. And upon that mercy seat,
the blood of the Lamb was applied. Christ, our mercy seat, that's
the glory that excels. When Moses asked God to show
him God's glory, God did not begin to say thou shalt and thou
shalt not. He said, I'll be gracious. I'll
be gracious. Gracious to who? Lawbreakers. Those that are guilty. That's
what sin is. It's disobeying God's law. In
thought, word, and deed. And he said, I'll be gracious.
The glory that exceleth doesn't do away with the law. When Paul
says that the law had no glory, he's careful to point out that
it is in this respect, there's a glory that supersedes that.
There's a glory that swallows that glory up and shines forth
brighter than any star, there's a glory that exceleth. The glory
of Christ not only magnifies the law and makes it honorable,
Isaiah 42, 21, but God's greatest glory that he's ever revealed
to sinners is seen in Christ crucified. It's revealed on Calvary
where he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever that believeth
in him should not perish but have everlasting life. What Paul
says is done away in verse 11 is not the law itself, but the
covenant of the law. That's done away. That's what
Paul said in Romans 10, four. He said, Christ is the end of
something. The goal of it, he's the goal
of the law given, but he's also the end of it. It's over with.
What is he talking about? The law for righteousness. Not
the end of the law. It does not say in Romans 10,
four, Christ is the end of the law. He's the end of the law
for righteousness. He's the termination of me trusting
in my law keeping to be righteous before God. He is the termination
of me going about in that same context, going about to establish
my own righteousness. Christ is my righteousness. So
why would I trust my keeping of the law anymore? The law for
righteousness is vanity. I can't have righteousness if
it only comes by the law. But Paul talks about in Romans
three, that law, that righteousness without the law. You remember
that terminology in Romans chapter three, the righteousness without
the law is now revealed. In that God revealed his son,
to be a propitiation for our sins, he sent his son to be a
sin offering. That's both the termination of
the law for righteousness and the goal of it. The purpose that
he gave the law was what? Christ for his people. The law's
a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. The ministration of the law,
verse nine, is the ministration of condemnation because the law
reveals our evil but can't do anything about it. It's called
the ministration of condemnation because by the deeds of the law
shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God, Romans 3.20.
The new covenant is called the ministration
of righteousness because that righteousness required by the
old covenant law is fulfilled by Christ in the new. God doesn't
do away with his standard for righteousness when he saves a
sinner. You just don't seek any longer the righteousness that
comes by the law, but you seek it, Romans chapter 11, by faith
in God's son. By believing on him and trusting
him as your only righteousness before God. Christ fulfilled the law and
paid our sin debt. And God says in the new covenant,
your sins and your iniquities will I remember no more. So the new covenant is the ministration
of righteousness without the law for us, without us keeping the law for righteousness.
That's the glory that exceleth. That's the glory that we minister.
That's the glory that we preach Christ and what he did. The new
covenant, It is up to Him, not us. It depends on Him, not us. The glory of God's righteousness
and holiness are magnified only in Christ and Him crucified.
Do you think it honors God's law for you to do some little
something that you think is a work of righteousness down here? Everything
we do is full of sin. If you trust anything, he said,
even if you be circumcised, which is the first thing in the law,
Christ will profit you nothing if you do it in order to please
God, if you do it as even a portion of your righteousness before
God. Think of it, the glory of God's
righteousness and holiness are magnified only on the cross. You tell me where else God's
law is honored? Where else, how else? The glory of God's love is magnified
in the death of Christ and only there. because herein is love. His righteousness and holiness
are magnified because only by Christ's suffering and death
could the law be satisfied. His love is magnified because
herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and
sent his son to be the sin offering for our sins. The glory of God's grace is magnified
in this glory that exceleth. Because the glory of God that
is seen only in the face of his son, because he that spared not
his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
also freely? That's the glory of his grace
magnified nowhere else, but in that he spared not his own son. And how shall he not then also
freely give us all things? Every blessing he has, everything
good God can do for you is yours in Christ. Christ is that glory that excelleth. And like Paul, by God's grace,
we determine to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ
in Him crucified. Amen, let's pray.