Thank you, Kevin. Let's turn
to 2 Corinthians 3. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. I just want to begin with one verse,
maybe two, let me see here. 2 Corinthians 3. In verse 17, he says, Now the
Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is liberty. And then he describes the liberty,
and he says, 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 by the Spirit of the Lord. Now the message
that Paul has been dealing with here is the difference between
the old covenant law and the new covenant of grace. And when
he spoke there about the letter, he talked about the letter engraven,
written and engraven in stones, it includes the old covenant
moral law, the Ten Commandments, that was what was engraven on
stones, and it includes the ceremonial law that Moses wrote. And he
is saying that the new covenant, the ministry of the gospel of
Christ, where Christ has preached His person, His works, And it's
a spiritual ministry. The Spirit is ministered to us,
creating us anew. And He says here, and the Lord
is that Spirit. He is the life of that new man. And He is the understanding of
that new man. He is everything that is necessary
to give us liberty. That's what He's declaring here.
And so He's saying here that we have liberty. Those that are
called by God by Christ have liberty. And I want to look now
what the liberty is. And as I looked at this more
and more, I began to really rejoice in the context here of what Paul
has been saying. The liberty that Christ gives
us is truly liberty for everything that kept us from Him and from
God, the Father. It's liberty to truly worship
Him in spirit and in truth through the gospel and to be grown by
Him by that same means. This is the liberty He's given
us. And it's a wonderful liberty. It's a freedom like no other. Now, first of all, He gives His
people liberty of revelation. Liberty of revelation. You know, the Word has to be
revealed to us. And the Word of God from the
beginning has been God revealing how He saved sinners, little
by little, here a little, there a little, God's revelation. But
through this new covenant, the Lord, the Spirit of the Lord
gives us a liberty of revelation. The liberty of revelation. Now
in the context, Paul has been speaking about the contrast between
the veiled old covenant. He used that. Remember Moses
came down out of the mountain from receiving the law and his
face was shining with the glory of God, so he had to put a veil
on his face. But then when he would go back and speak with
God, he'd take the veil off. And Paul used that veil. He used
that veil to illustrate and to speak about the old covenant
as well as the dishonesty of natural legal preachers, men
who look religious outwardly but are not inwardly. He used
that veil to describe them. And he contrasted that with the
openness and honesty of the gospel minister. in this gospel age
that's speaking by Christ. Look back at verse 12. He says,
seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness
of speech. He said, Christ is going to make
us prosper and succeed in anywhere we preach the gospel. And he
said, our sufficiency is of God. It has nothing to do with us.
It's all of God. He said, Christ makes His people
His epistle writing on their hearts. He said, He's made us
able ministers of the gospel of the new covenant. Not of the
letter, but of the Spirit. The Spirit kills, but the ministry
of the Spirit gives life. And He went through and He showed
those contrasts. It's the ministry of the Spirit
as contrasted with the ministry of death. The ministry of life
contrasted with the ministry of death, which the law was.
It's the ministry of righteousness. Christ is ministering righteousness
to His people versus the ministry of condemnation. And He says,
this is what great ministry we've been given. And we see Christ
is doing it all through this ministry. And He says, seeing
as we have such a hope, such a great expectation, a confident
expectation of what the Lord is doing, we use great plainness
of speech. 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. Now Paul is using
that veil to picture that Old Covenant dispensation. The Old
Covenant law was full of shadows and types and prophecy, but it
was not just thrown open and revealed that Christ is all. It wasn't. It was a little bit
in shadow and type, in the lambs, and in the Ark of the Covenant,
and the mercy seat, and the high priest. There was pictures and
types and all that. It gave a partial revelation,
but it didn't give a full revelation. It didn't give a full revelation.
And then Paul uses that veil to describe the men of his day
in the Jewish synagogue. He's talking about lost men.
He's talking about men who are lost, who don't have the Spirit
of God working in their heart. And he said this, these are men
who stood up or sat down, I forget, I think they sat to read the
law, but they read the law of Moses in the synagogue. And he
says here in verse 14, 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,
but even unto this day when Moses is read, the veil is upon their
heart." I read that in imitation of Moses. You know, Moses came
down, he had the law, and he wrote the first five books of
the Bible. And Moses came down, and when he came down he had
the law, and he put a veil over his face. Well, in Paul's day,
in imitation of Moses, just to imitate Moses, just to... Religious,
natural carnal religion is always looking for something to make
it a little more appealing to the natural eye. And they literally
would put a veil on when they read the law in the synagogue. They put a veil on, just to imitate
Moses. It was just a superstitious ritual,
a vain tradition, just wearing a veil. He said, until this day
remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old
Testament. That was literally what they were doing. But Paul
says that outward veil is symbolic of a worse problem. It's something
that's going on inside. He said there, verse 14, their
minds are blinded. In verse 15 he says, even unto
this day when Moses is read, the veil is upon their hearts.
The veil is upon their hearts. It's there by hardness of heart,
it's there by prejudice, it's there by pride. Men have pride
of their form of religion. They think it's better than somebody
else's form of religion because of the outward things they do.
and what they wear and all that. God's religion has nothing to
do with what you wear. It has nothing to do with outward.
It's a heart matter. It's a heart matter. But this is the problem of all
men. The veil is on the heart. The natural man, no matter how
religious, the veil is on the heart. But Paul says the ministry
of the Spirit is opposite to that. You see, he's talking about
not having liberty of revelation with that old covenant and being
under the law and under the letter of the law and the wrath of the
law and being dead in sin. You don't have a liberty of revelation.
But those called in this new spirit have a liberty of revelation. They've been given a revelation.
Look at verse 16. Nevertheless, when the heart
shall turn to the Lord, The veil should be taken away. Well, how
is it going to be turned then? Now the Lord is that Spirit.
He has been talking up there about the ministry of the little
s Spirit. About how He puts a new Spirit
in you, a new heart in you. And He says here, now the Lord
is that Spirit, capital S Spirit. The Lord is the life of that
new man. He is the heartbeat and the breath
of that new man. And he says, the Lord is that
Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, when the Spirit
of the Lord Jesus Christ enters into the heart of a man, there
is liberty. There is liberty. Watch what
he is talking about here. They saw very dimly, the veil
was on their heart, verse 18, but we all, where the Spirit
of the Lord is, we all with open face, open face, no veil, open
face, full revelation, beholding as in a glass. The glory of the
Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory by
the Spirit of the Lord. The Spirit of the Lord removes
the veil on the heart. He takes it off. He gives a liberty
of revelation so that it's not a veiled revelation anymore.
Now, I'll grant you, as Paul said, we see through a glass
darkly right now in comparison to how we will see one day when
Christ brings us home. But we still have a much more
open revelation than you would ever get looking at the Old Covenant
without this Spirit of the Lord within you. The Spirit of the
Lord gives a liberty, brethren, a liberty of revelation to behold
Him. And notice this, the ministry
of the Old Covenant When God gave that, He only allowed Moses
to come up to the mountain. Moses was the only one that could
come up to the mountain. Moses came up to the mountain and talked
to God face to face, open face. But he was the only one. He was
the only one. And when He gave the law, He
was the only one. But the Spirit of the Lord, the
Spirit of the Lord doesn't just give this liberty of revelation
to one person. to one imminent elect child or
something like that. It doesn't operate that way.
The Lord doesn't operate that way. He gives it to all those
He redeemed. All kinds of sinners in all kinds
of states that He finds them in, in all kinds of circumstances,
in all kinds of problems and different different levels in
society. And He gives a revelation to
all those He redeemed. He says there, but we all. But
we all. Moses was the only one that went
up in the mountain. But this liberty of revelation
is for all God's people. All His elect. Natural religion,
carnal religion, likes to have their big eyes and their little
hues. They like to have clergy and laity. You know, there's
got to be a difference. We're getting a little special
revelation than what you're getting, you know. Really and truly, men
would like to just be out and out, say they're just priests
because that's the way they act anyway. They really would like
to do that if they could get away with it. And that's natural
religion. Christ sets us free from that
bondage, brethren. He sets us free. He gives his
revelation not just to a select few, to all his people who he's
bought with his blood. All kinds of people with all
kinds of sins and difficulties. We all have a liberty of revelation
given to us to behold Christ. And those who are weak, those
who are low, those who are ignorant, those who are... It doesn't matter
where he finds them. Wherever they are, He shines
forth His light and He gives them revelation. We all behold. And this was prophesied. Go back
to Isaiah 25 and look at verse 7. This is what the Lord said He
would do, speaking through Isaiah. Isaiah 25, 7. He is talking about what He is going
to do in His church where His gospel is preached. That's the
mountain. And he said there, verse 6, And
this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people
a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the leaves, a feast
of fat things full of myrrh, of wines on the leaves well refined.
In our text, that feast is called a glass. It's the gospel. We see in a glass, we see the
glory of the Lord in a glass, in the gospel. And what does
He do? Look, verse 7, And He will destroy
in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people
and the veil that is spread over all nations. What does that mean? It means all kinds and all shapes
and distresses, all kinds of problems His people are in, the
people He redeemed. But He is going to reveal Himself
and do away with that covering cast over all His people. And
wherever His people are in all the nations, scattered about
in all the nations, He is going to give them a revelation. Bring
them under this gospel and cast that covering off of them. Look
over at Joel with me. Joel chapter 2. Joel chapter
2. He gave this revelation. He prophesied
this revelation. Listen to this. Joel 2.28. It
shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit
upon all flesh. Now is He talking about all people
without exception? This happened on the day of Pentecost.
He is talking about all His chosen, redeemed people. And look, and
your sons and just your sons are going to prophesy. No, your
sons and your daughters. You see? The point of this is
not that He is going to start calling women to preach and to
prophesy. The point of it is He is going
to pour out His Spirit and give a revelation of Him to all kinds
of people, all different kinds of His people. Look, He says,
your sons and your daughters, your old men shall dream dreams,
your young men shall see visions, old and young. Also, upon the
servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out
My Spirit, even the poor, even those that nobody even recognized,
the handmaids and the servants. I'm going to give them a full
revelation. Verse 32, And it shall come to pass that whosoever,
that is, Whatever rank in society, whatever sinful condition they
are in, whoever, whosoever, shall call on the name of the Lord,
shall be delivered. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant
whom the Lord shall call. The Lord is going to pour out
His Spirit, and when He does, He is going to be on all kinds
of folks, and they are going to call on the Lord then, by
His Spirit, and whosoever they are. they'll be delivered. You see that? A full liberty
of revelation He gives us that men didn't have before, like
this. Now go back to our text. Here's
the second thing. We see here, secondly, Christ
gives liberty from a veiled, dishonest preaching. Liberty
from a veiled, dishonest ministry from being dishonest in preaching. He gives liberty from that and
he sets us free to declare and hear the gospel of Christ openly
and honestly. He said there in 2 Corinthians
3.18, He says, We all, with open face, beholding as in a glass,
that is, in the Gospel, in the preaching of the Word, the glory
of the Lord. Now, if we are going to all behold
and we are going to behold openly and have a full revelation disclosed
unto us, revealed unto us through the preaching of the Gospel,
that means the preaching of the Gospel is not going to be veiled. It
is going to have to be open. It is going to have to be in
truth, according to God's Word. And to do that, he's going to
have to call men and make them ministers, isn't he? And that's
what Paul said. He made us able ministers of
the new covenant. Now, legal religion, and I mean
that's everybody that's... If you hear a man preaching the
law and saying, you've got to do this, and they always bring
you back, you have to do something to be saved. You have to do something
to be saved. That's legal preaching. And that's
not what the full revelation reveals. That's not the preaching,
the full liberty of preaching that Christ gives His ministers
to preach honestly and truthfully. They won't declare that to believers
not under the law, but under grace. They might say that statement,
but they're going to hedge it. They always hedge it. Now, that
doesn't mean, you know, that you're not under the law. That's
what they'll tell you. They won't declare Christ as
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. If
they do, they'll hedge it. They'll say, that's just talking
about righteousness, that's not talking about holiness. That's
talking about everything. Everything. Christ is the end.
of the law. He's the purpose of it. They
won't declare Christ will not remember, God will not remember
our sin anymore, past, present, or future. He will not charge
His child with sin and punish His child for sin because Christ
bore that on the cross. He will not do it. They say things
like you can't preach that because men will just run wild in rebellion
if you preach that. And so they hide these things
and they don't preach these things openly and honestly. They won't
just flat out say salvation is of the Lord from the very beginning
to the very end and every step in between. And all you do is
sin and be saved. That's it. That's it. They won't
declare that. They're going to put a work in
your hand somehow and preach man's works. And it's a bondage. That's bondage, brethren. You
think about a bondage it would be to not be able to declare
Christ plainly, freely, and truthfully according to God's Word. That's
bondage. Let's find it. Christ sets His
people free to declare the truth boldly and plainly. He gives
us liberty to declare the truth boldly and plainly. Look at verse
12. Seeing then we have such hope, we use great plainness
of speech, Paul said. We don't veil anything. He said,
Moses veiled his face so the children of Israel could not
steadfastly look to the end of that which is now abolished.
Verse 14 says, which veil is done away in Christ. You see,
that veil upon the heart is only removed by Christ. It is only
removed by hearing about what Christ has done, about who Christ
is and what He has accomplished. That is the only way the veil
is removed. by the Spirit of the Lord. That's the only way
it's removed. We want to preach Christ. We want to tell sinners. We want to see that the Law and
the Prophets and the Psalms and everything God ever wrote in
this book was concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. It had its
end to magnify and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. To show that
He's the fulfillment of every type and every shadow. He's the
fulfillment of the righteousness of the moral law, of the Ten
Commandments. He's the fulfillment of every
psalm is Christ speaking to the Father. Using David and scenarios
David went through to illustrate it. But it's all concerning Christ. We want sinners to hear that.
I want sinners to know that. Because that veil that's on the
heart is going to be done away when Christ comes and the Spirit
of the Lord enters in and teaches them that He's the end. He's
the end purpose. He's the end fulfillment. He's
the end to which His people are brought so that we cast ourselves
into His arms and know that He's done it all. And we want them
to hear that. We don't want to veil that. We
don't want to hedge that about and not preach it. We want to
preach it. He's given us liberty to do that. He's given us liberty
to preach it. And liberty from deceitfulness. So we don't have to use any craftiness,
any deceitfulness. Now he says all this and the
chapters were put in there by the translators. He is still
talking about the same thing. Look at verse 1 of chapter 4.
Seeing we have this ministry, as we've received mercy, we faint
not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking
in craftiness, not handling the Word of God deceitfully, but
by manifestation of the truth, committing ourselves to every
man's conscience in the sight of God. Look at verse 5. For
we preach not ourselves, We're not preaching man's works, but
we're preaching Christ Jesus the Lord. He is our message.
Ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. How did Paul come to know
this? Paul didn't have that liberty
at one time. Paul was in bondage at one time,
and Paul would not have dared said what he just said. No, sir. How did he come to have this
liberty? Look here, verse 6. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. That's exactly the same thing
he said right up there in verse 18. We all with open face beholding
the glory of the Lord in a glass in the gospel. That's what he
said up there. That's how he came to have this
liberty right here. And so, like I said before, when
you come to have this liberty this way, you go preach Him because
you want others to have that liberty. And you quit using craftiness
because, as he says in verse 7, we have this treasure in earthen
vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God, not
of us. You know what is a great liberty is to be able to take
this book and just I can go through it. I can just take an epistle
and just go right through it and preach it verse by verse
and not have to jump over any verses or skip over any verses
or skip over any books. If you're preaching trying to
craft the Word so as not to offend sinners, you're going to have
to take out Romans 9. You're going to have to take
out Romans 8. You're going to have to take
out Romans 3. You better just take out all of Romans. And probably
take out Galatians. And probably take out Hebrews.
I don't really know if there's anything you could preach if
you don't want to offend sinners, if you preach it according to
this Word. But liberty is being able to
pick it up and preach just what it says. Just what it says. Because that's how God's going
to free sinners. That's how He's going to free
them. Showing them Christ. Now, thirdly, this liberty also
includes liberty from the law and from works so that we have
the freedom to be grown in grace by Christ Himself through the
gospel. This is liberty from the law
and from our own works so that we can be free to be grown in
grace by the Lord Jesus Christ through the gospel. That takes
God giving you that liberty and freeing you to be able to do
that. It really does. Now look, verse 18, 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 by the Spirit
of the Lord. Now the Spirit of the Lord made
us behold as in a glass. The Spirit of the Lord made us
behold not in the law, not in preaching of what you ought to
be doing and your moral, how you ought to go out and live
this week in a moral way like most people are hearing today.
Or a message on how you, you know, something that appeals
to the flesh and your moralisms, you know. He didn't reveal it
that. He revealed it in the Gospel
of Christ. In the Gospel of Christ, not with the natural eye, but
with the eye of spiritual understanding. Not with the natural eye, but
with the eye of faith that he gave. This is what he did. This
is that glory that excelleth. A glory that excels that old
carnal ministry of the letter. He said that had glory. Because
it was given to kill you, it was given to minister condemnation
and death to you and show you, you can't save yourself. But
this glory excels that glory. And he says here, the Spirit
of the Lord made us behold in the gospel, not the glory of
Moses, not the glory of our works, but the glory of God. He said
in verse 6, when God commanded that light to shine out of darkness
and He shined in our hearts, He gave the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. You know, to most ministries,
so called, Christ is kind of just a side note. People seem
like they get tired of hearing about Christ after a while. But
when the Lord in the Spirit has made you behold Christ and look
in Christ's face, you behold in Christ the fullness of the
Godhead in a body. Can you exhaust learning about
the Godhead? Christ is the fullness of the
Godhead. God's invisible. He's a spirit.
But you see Him in our Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we see Him. And when we made to behold Him,
we behold the wisdom of God, we behold the power of God, we
behold the righteousness of God, the holiness of God. How good
do I have to be? Look at Christ. Christ walked
this earth. He came from the womb, conceived
in the womb with no sin. That's how good you got to be.
And He came forth perfect, without sin. And everything He ever thought
and did was loving God and His neighbor as Himself. Perfectly. Everything He ever did. That
shows you something about who God is and what God requires. And when He makes you behold
Him, He makes you behold in all those miracles He worked and
everything that He did doing good and how long-suffering He
was and all of those things. He makes you now to see in all
those things greater miracles. The fact that He was long-suffering
to me. The fact that he was good to me, the fact that he exercised
that wisdom to me, the fact that he imputed that righteousness
of his to me and that he entered my heart by the Spirit and purified
it and sanctified it because he is my sanctification and made
me see he's my sanctification. He made you behold Him. He said,
I'll pour out on the house of David, upon the habitants of
Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and supplications. That's what
we're talking about here. The Spirit of the Lord giving
us this liberty to behold Christ. And He said, when I do that,
they're going to behold Me. They're going to look at Me.
And they're going to mourn for Me because they pierced Me. And
when He makes you behold Christ, He makes you quit arguing against
God and quit trying to defend yourself. And He makes you see,
I'm the reason Christ was on that cross. I'm the reason He
was forsaken. I'm the reason He called out,
my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? He was bearing the
justice I deserve on that cross. And He makes you start mourning
for Him Like a man would mourn for his only son. That's because you behold Christ
and you seek Christ. And as we beheld Christ, that's
when the Lord God made Christ unto us wisdom and righteousness. and sanctification and redemption. And for the first time ever,
we stopped glorying in ourselves and we started glorying in Him.
We started praising Him. We started worshiping Him. You
remember whenever he did this work for Paul on the road to
Damascus? And Paul went to Ananias to send him over there to preach
to him. And Ananias said, I'm scared to go over there. I've
heard about this man. He's got letters. He's trying
to kill the brethren. And the Lord said, behold, he
prayeth. Paul had never done that, ever. He'd been in the
synagogue a lot. He'd been seen by men a lot in
the street corners praying, saying prayers, but he had never prayed.
For the first time, he quit glorying in himself and he started praising
God. He started calling on God's name
and God says to us when he makes us behold him, you know, you
got all these, you got all this baggage, you got all these things
that you've been taught all these years it's important. And you
think it's important. And it's just a natural thing.
Everybody you talk to tells you, you got to do this, you got to
do that, and they will defend that to the death. And they will.
They're going to do that if God don't intervene. But Christ,
God narrows it all down and makes you behold Christ face to face
and says, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased,
hear Him. Hear Him. And He shuts everything
else out so that Christ is the only one you can have your focus
on. He's the only one you can pay attention to. And He says
to you then, this is the work of God. that you believe on Him
whom He hath sent." You mean there's nothing else that God
would have me to work? This is the work of God, that
you believe on Him whom He hath sent. That's the thing. That's why
we've got to have this liberty This liberty given to us by the
Spirit of the Lord is because we can do anything we're asked
to do and we will do anything we're asked to do except nothing. Just don't tell me I can't do
something to save myself. Because when you say that, you
take all the glory away from me and you give it all to God. See, that's what faith is. Faith
is taking all the glory out of our hands and putting it all
in God's hand, saying, I need Him to save me. I need Him to
do everything. And God said, that's the work
of God. He called it a work because it's no work at all. And those
men that are saying, what must we do? We might work the works
of God. You want to work the work of God? Stop working and
believe on Christ. That's it. And He makes you to
see then when you cast your care on Him, He makes you to see Just
as Christ is the fullness of the Godhead bodily, just as He
is the complete fullness of the Godhead in a body, you are all
fullness complete in Christ. Just as fully as Christ is the
fullness of the Godhead in the body, you are complete, just
that complete in Him. I'll tell you something, when
that happens, That's when He changed us into the same image
of Christ. When we were beheld, He changed
us into the same image. To the same image. He put on
us the new man. Scripture says, which after God
is created in righteousness and true holiness. after God. Is God righteous and holy? He
says this new man is created after God, righteous and holy. We couldn't do that. Christ could
and Christ does. The new man, He puts on you the
new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created
him. after the image of Him that created
that new man. Where there is neither Greek
nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor
free, but Christ is all in all. You know when He does this work
in the heart and He makes you a new creation, old things are
passed away and all things become new. We are not It doesn't matter
if we're a Jew, we're not saying, well, I'm a Jew, so I'm better
than a Gentile. If we're Gentile, we're not saying, well, I'm a
Gentile, I'm better than a Jew. We're not saying, well, I'm a free
man, I'm better than a bondman. We're not saying, I'm the Lord's
bondman, so I'm better than a free man. We're not saying that anything
about us anymore made any of the difference. And that's what
we're doing when we talk about ladies north and south, is exalting
ourselves at the expense of somebody else. We don't judge after the
flesh anymore. Christ has taught us that in
that he died, he died for all his people. And then in that
he died, all his people, the old body of sin, that body of
death, that thing that we used to try to use to differentiate
ourselves from another, is killed and dead. And now, we're alive
unto God, so that we should not live unto ourselves, but unto
him that gave himself for us. And so he says, therefore, if
any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things are passed
away. That old way of thinking is gone.
And everything's become new now. We're walking after Him. We're
judging after the Spirit now. All that matters is, is Christ
made you new or not? Isn't that what he said? He said
circumcision doesn't avail anything nor uncircumcision. None of that
matters. But a new creation. Being made new by Christ, that's
what matters. See, this is in that new man. And He made him
to have preeminence in our heart. The Lord said, whom He did foreknow,
He did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son for this
reason, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. He makes Him the firstborn in
our hearts. And it's not like, you know,
The Darbientos might all regard A.J. as the firstborn and like,
you know, honor him and give him preeminence when he walks
in the door. I kind of doubt it. But when he makes Christ have
preeminence in your heart, that's how you regard him. This is the
firstborn son we're talking about. This is the preeminent one we're
talking about. And we bow to him. We bow to
him. Because He's done it all. And
He changed us from that old glory, that old covenant law, that old
glory that He said it had glory. He changed us from that old glory
to this glory that excelleth the new covenant of grace. I
was a little disappointed that Dr. Gill said it didn't mean
that, because that's the context. That's exactly what Paul was
just talking about. He said that old covenant had glory, but it
don't have glory like this. This covenant has glory. This
is the glory that excelleth. And then he says, when we beheld
Christ, He changes from glory to glory. He changes from that
old glory to this glory. This glory that excels over everything. And if it does mean that He continues
to grow us, From glory to glory, from one degree of grace and
knowledge to another, which He does do that. I'm just not sure
that's what it's teaching right there. But I know how He does
that. He doesn't grow us by sending
us back to the law. He grows us the same way He started
this work right here. The Spirit of the Lord began
this work and the Spirit of the Lord continues this work. This
work was done through not beholding Moses in the law, but making
us behold Christ in the gospel. It was done through the preaching
of the Word. It was done through the Gospel. And He continues to do it that
way. If beholding Christ's person and His work and being given
this liberty, we got all this liberty from just beholding Christ
in the Spirit of the Lord, giving us this liberty, wouldn't we
grow in His grace and knowledge the same way? by constantly beholding
Christ's person and Christ's work? Why on earth would we ever
stand here and preach about our works then? That's why we just
preach His work. He'll grow you. He'll teach you. He'll apply it to you. He'll
make you understand what to do with it. I'm certain He will.
Far better than I could ever do it. And He'll grow you. And He'll use providence too.
He'll make you fall on your face. He'll spank your bottom using
providence. Just like a father does his child.
And correct us and send us right on our way. And make us learn
from it. Make us grow from it. And bring
us back to hear the gospel again. And he keeps doing that. And
by the Spirit of the Lord, through the heritage of this gospel now,
I was given liberty from sin's guilt, from sin's penalty, liberty
from sin's dominion in that he enabled me to believe on him
now, liberty from the fear of death. And having begun that
way, By the same Spirit of the Lord, in this same glass, here
in this Gospel of Christ person who works, beholding this same
glory of the Lord, he says we're going to be changed into the
same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the
Lord. That's just plain as day, isn't it? He don't change. He
don't go back to Moses. He just keeps on this way. here
in his work, this person in his work. And I discovered something
else then when I heard that. It gave me liberty. Something
else it gave me liberty from. It gave me liberty from this
thing of going back to the law and to my works and to my flesh
for this purpose that men somehow can come up with that that's
going to make me grow more holy. and more perfect to be accepted
of God. If I did that, I would have something
to glory in. But He does that. He makes you
fit to be accepted the day He does this work. But He keeps
growing you like a baby grows, everything that's alive grows,
and He grows you in that state. But He does it through this Word,
through this Gospel. I want you to turn over with
me. I want to show you something. A couple of passages, and I'm
going to be done here. Let's read this right here. Let's go to Romans 8 first. I
want to show you this first. Romans 8. It's so clear, you
know, and you've read these Scriptures a thousand times, and then you
look at them in light of what we're saying today, and it's
like, well, there it is. Why didn't I see that all along?
Romans 8. Romans 8, verse 1. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Now who
are they? Who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. That's what we're talking about.
That's what he said we'll keep doing. Look here. For the law
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the
law of sin and death. You see that? He has given me
liberty. That is what freedom is. He has
given me liberty from that law of sin and death. Look at this. He says, Christ came, the law
was weak through our flesh, and God sent in His own Son and likened
us to sinful flesh for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. Now watch this.
That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us. You could say fulfilled for and
imputed to. Who? Us who walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit. You see that? This is a spiritual
thing. This is the ministry of the Spirit. This is the work
of the Spirit of the Lord. This is done through the Gospel
of Christ. This is changing us from that
old glory of that old law to this new glory. And this is how
He keeps doing it, all the way to the end. Go with me now to
Galatians chapter 5. Galatians 5. He says, Stand fast, therefore,
in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. And be not
entangled again with the yoke of bondage in any shape or form. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you
that if you be circumcised, and you put anything in the blank
there, anything you must do, Christ shall profit you nothing.
For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, he is
a debtor to do the whole law. Christ has become of no effect
unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, you are
fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit, now
watch this, is this not a definition of what we just heard Paul declare
in 2 Corinthians 3? We through the Spirit wait for
the hope of righteousness by faith. We walk by Spirit. We hear the Gospel. We are taught
of Him in the heart. We look to Christ. We behold
Christ. That is how we are strengthened
and grown and kept and everything. We are taught. He said, For in
Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision,
but faith which worketh by love. He said, You ran well. Who entered
you that you should not obey the truth? This persuasion did
not come of him that called you. This did not come through the
Gospel. It didn't come from Christ, the Spirit of the Lord. A little
leaven, just a little bit of works leavens the whole lump,
makes it all worse. I have confidence in you through
the Lord. Paul says, seeing we have such
a hope, we use great plainness of speech. He said, I have confidence
in you through the Lord that you'll be none otherwise minded. What does he mean by that? none
otherwise minded but Christ. And while your mind set on anything
but Christ, but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment,
whosoever he be. And I brethren, if I yet preach
circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense
of the cross ceased. I would they were cut off which
trouble you. For brethren, you have been called unto liberty.
But don't use your liberty for an occasion to the flesh. Don't
use your liberty now to go back to the law and start trying to
whip and bind and bite and devour your brethren. But by love, serve
one another. Not by the law, by love. You
know, men, today's Mother's Day. You love your mother. Do you
have to have a law to make you love her? You just love her, don't you?
You don't have to have some rules and regulations telling you how
to do it and how you're doing it wrong or how you're doing
it right. You just love her. You just love her. And your wife,
mother of your children, you just love her. I'd hate to know Belinda had
come in and go to a set of rules on the wall and look at a set
of rules on the wall and say, now let me see, what does the
state of New Jersey say I'm going to have to do here to love you?
What kind of love is that? We see Christ and we're motivated
by Christ, we're moved by Christ, we're taught by Christ, we see
how to love, we see everything we need to know looking to Christ,
don't we? He laid down His life for us and He taught us to give
ourselves for one another and love one another just like He
loved us. That's simple enough, isn't it? Consider your brethren
better than yourself. Love your brethren. Put them
on a pedestal. You take the lowest spot. That's
what Christ did for us. Everything you want to learn,
you can learn looking to Christ. That's liberty. That's living
unto God. That's liberty. Let's observe
the Lord's table. I prayed like Paul prayed there,
you know. He said the only way that these
men that are blinded, the only way they're going to have that
veil taken off, he said in chapter 4, is if God shines that light
of the gospel of the glory of God. That tells you this gospel
is everything. Declaring Christ. Precious, precious
liberty. Alright, brother.