Let's turn in our Bibles to 2
Corinthians chapter 3. I want to just read verse 6. Paul says, God also hath made
us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter. not of the letter, but of the
Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the
Spirit giveth life. So our subject is the letter
and the Spirit. Now Paul is beginning here to
contrast the old covenant of works with the new covenant of
grace. He is contrasting the letter
the Law of Moses with the Spirit, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The letter is the Law of Moses,
the Gospel, the Spirit is the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, by doing this, this shows
us, I pointed this out Thursday night, I'll say it again, this
shows us that Paul's chief opponents at Corinth were the Judaizers. Now this was the case everywhere
he went. Judaizers claimed to believe salvation to be by grace
through faith in Christ. That's what they professed to
believe. But they added and insisted that the believer also must keep
the law of Moses or he could not be saved. They profess to
believe salvation by grace through faith, but they are added that
except a man keep the law, the Ten Commandments, he could not
be saved in addition to Christ. Now that is mixing law and gospel. It's mixing law and gospel. That's
the chief sin that Paul speaks about in all his epistles when
he talks about the believer no longer serving sin, but walking
in newness of spirit, not oldness of the letter. That's the chief
sin he's dealing with. That's the chief sin we face
in our day. Now, here's what I want you to
get, and we'll see this throughout the message. God's true preachers. We preach the gospel of Christ,
not the law. We preach the gospel of Christ,
not the works of men. Now, first of all, I want you
to focus on this phrase. He says, we preach not of the
letter, but of the Spirit. Not of the letter, but of the
Spirit. What is it to preach of the letter?
The preaching of the letter is preaching that says, you must
keep the law in order to be saved. Now, they might not say to you,
you must keep the law in order to be saved. They may just say, it's needful. But when you mix law with grace,
it ceases to be grace. It ceases to be the gospel. Usually,
they also turn some part of grace into a work, like faith or repentance
or good works. They make that to be a work of
the sinner, by which he's saved. Turn over to Acts 15. I'll show
you this. Acts 15. Look in verse 1. Acts 15, verse
1. It says, certain men which came
down from Judea. You see, they came from Jerusalem. That's where these men brought
their letters of recommendation. They did bring them from the
true church, but they brought letters to recommend them. They
came down from Judea and they taught the brethren. They began
to teach in the true church. And they said, Here's their doctrine. Except ye be circumcised after
the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. Look down at verse
5. There rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed. You get that? They believed.
They came preaching of the letter, claiming to believe salvation
is not by works, but by the grace of God through faith in Christ.
That's what Judeaters told. They said salvation is by the
grace of God through faith in Christ and not of your works.
And yet they added this, verse 5, saying that it was needful
to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses. Now hold your place right here.
Usually, Judaizers in our day say that it's needful for believers
to keep the law for sanctification. They say it's needful for believers
to keep the law for holiness. It's needful. They may not use
language such as, as strong as they used here, where they said,
or you can't be saved. But that's what they mean. Take
away those works from them and see if that's not what they mean. Let them hear the gospel I'm
preaching to you now and see if that's not what they believe. They'll reject this gospel just
like they rejected Paul, just like they rejected Christ. When
a believer then doesn't measure up to what they consider to be
their measure of holiness, Then, as they said here, they think
it's needful also to command them to keep the law of Moses. They bring you under law. Preaching
of the letter says that preaching the law, preaching the law will
make sinners obedient. It will make a believer obedient.
And if you don't preach the law, he'll just live like he wants
to. That's what they teach. I read this. I read one man said,
He said, true holiness is living like God says to live, not like
you want to live. That's not holiness. God makes
us willing. God's people live like we want
to live. We love holiness. We want to serve Christ. We're
not living like we don't want to live. We're living like we
want to live, by God's grace. But you see, it's not the letter
of the law, preaching the law that constrains a believer. That's
not what melts your heart and makes you obedient. It's the
constraint of Christ's love that does that. And the constraint
of Christ's love is only heard through the preaching of the
Spirit, through the preaching of the Gospel of Christ. That's
where you hear of Christ and His great love for His people
by which we're constrained to obedience and to walk honorably
before Him. Listen, go with me. Well, let
me just read this to you. If you want to go there, Galatians
3 verse 2. I'm showing you here in this
passage, don't lose Acts 15, we're coming back there. But
in this passage, Paul is saying it's not the preaching of the
law that's going to make you obedient. Listen to this, verse
2. This is only what I learned of
you. Now see, you could read Galatians. The whole book of
Galatians is Paul dealing with men who were saying that in addition
to Christ, you had to add the keeping of the Ten Commandments. These men weren't talking about
adding ceremonial law. They were talking about adding
the Ten Commandments. The law is one law and Christ
is the fulfillment of that one law. Listen to what Paul says
here. This only would I learn of you.
Receive ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing
of faith. You could have just as well put
there what our text says, by the hearing of the Spirit, by
the hearing of the gospel, by the hearing of the faithfulness
of Christ, about what Christ did. Are you so foolish then,
if that's how you received it through the hearing of faith,
having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? Look, have you suffered so many
things in vain, if it be so yet in vain? He therefore that ministereth
to you the Spirit, That's Christ's preacher. Paul said, we're ministering
the Spirit. We're preaching the Spirit. And
that's Christ who makes it effectual, who ministers the Spirit to His
people. He says, "...he therefore that
ministereth to you the Spirit, that preacheth the gospel of
Christ to you, and work miracles among you, doeth he it by the
works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" Even as Abraham believed
God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. The law was
not even given in Abraham's day. Abraham didn't hear the preaching
of the law. That's not how the Spirit of God was given to him.
That's not how he was brought to the obedience of faith. It
was through the preaching of Christ. That's how. It was not
by the preaching of the law. It was by the preaching of Christ.
That's how. And that's how we're going to continue to be made
obedient and be constrained. By the preaching of Christ in
His works for His people. Now, go back with me to Acts
15. I want you to see the rest of this. So the Apostle Peter
preached the Spirit. He preached the Gospel. When
these men came preaching the letter, he answered them by preaching
the Spirit, preaching the Gospel of Christ. And he declared that
God sent him to Gentiles. I love his answer here. It's
so good. He says, God sent me to Gentiles
And they knew what he meant. These were men who never had
the law of God and were never under the law of God. They were
never under that law of Moses at all. And they never had it. And Peter says, God sent me to
them and I preached of the Spirit. I preached the gospel of Christ.
And as I did, he said, God did this. Verse 9. God put no difference
between us Jews and those Gentiles who don't have the law. He purified
their hearts, not by the law, but by the hearing of faith.
He purified their heart by the hearing of faith. Now therefore,
listen to this, why tempt ye God to put a yoke of law upon
the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were
able to bear. He said we never once fulfilled
the law. Why now are you going to put
that yoke on these Gentiles who never were even under the law
and who are trusting Christ? Why? Why? Look, but we believe. that through the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ, through the new everlasting covenant of grace,
through the gospel of Christ, we, Jews, shall be saved even
as they. We're going to be saved like
those Gentiles, that is, without the works of the law. without
the works of the law, through the hearing of the gospel. You
see, the preaching of the Spirit, the preaching of the Spirit is
declaring the gospel of Christ. It's preaching Christ's works,
that God in Christ fulfilled all the obligations of the new
covenant of grace. The old covenant of works put
obligations into the hands of the sinner that the sinner never
could ever fulfill. The new covenant comes and says
the work is entirely finished. Obligations have all been met
by God. He's done it in the person of
Christ. There's nothing for you to do to meet an obligation.
And understand this, every sinner saved by God, Even those back
there that were under that old covenant, outwardly, physically. Every sinner saved by God has
been saved by the everlasting covenant of grace through the
gospel of Christ. Through the gospel of Christ.
They were required to keep the ceremonial law. But they did
it because that to them was their gospel. That was like you and
I coming here and hearing the gospel preached. That's how they
saw Christ in the high priest, and the blood of the lamb, and
the mercy seat, and the holy place, and all of those things.
That was like them hearing the gospel from true believers. But
they all were saved by the covenant of grace. David said, although
it be not so with my house, God hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things and sure. That means God fulfilled
every obligation. And David said, and this is all
my salvation. He didn't say, but I got to add
something to it. He said, this is all my salvation. That's the preaching of the Spirit. Now, back in our text, it says
to us secondly, here's why we do not preach the letter. 2 Corinthians
chapter 3 and verse 6. Here's why we do not preach the
letter. The letter killeth. the letter
killeth. Now, go to Romans chapter 7 and
I'll show you how the letter killeth. Romans chapter 7. And let's read verse 8 here. Now, what I want to show you
here is, you listen to me, the law kills by sin, deceiving the
sinner into thinking he can actually keep the law. The letter of the
law kills by sin making the sinner think he can actually keep the
letter of the law. Look here in Romans 7 verse 8.
Paul says, Sin, taking occasion by the commandment. Sin, using
the commandment of God, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. You know what concupiscence means?
Concupiscence is doing what is unlawful. That's what concupiscence
is. Remember Paul said, the law is
good if a man use it lawfully. Well, Paul says here, sin caused
me to use the law unlawfully. Sin caused me to use the law
unlawfully. How so? He used the law to measure
himself. to measure his outward obedience. And he looked at himself and
thought, I'm righteous. I have kept the law. I put away
my sin. That's the unlawful use of the
law, to measure your righteousness by the law. That's unlawful.
That's not what the law is used for. That's that sin that Paul
speaks all about in Romans 6 where he says, you were the servants
of sin, but you're not anymore. And then he goes into Romans
7. I'll show you that in the second message. That's what we're
not under anymore. He's pulled us out from that
sin and now he's brought us to believe on Christ. Watch the
before and after right here. Romans 7 verse 8. He says, for without the law,
verse 8, for without the law, that means when I didn't hear
the law, he says sin was dead and I was alive. When I didn't
hear the law and I didn't understand the law, He said sin was dead
and I was alive. But when the commandment came,
when Christ made me hear the law, sin came alive and I died. You see the reversal there? That's
the evil concupiscence that kills a sinner is when he does not
hear the law because of his sin, He thinks sin is dead. He thinks he has mortified sin
in his bodily members and put sin down by his obedience to
the law. He thinks he's made his sin dead
and he thinks he's alive. I've earned a righteousness so
well, God is so pleased with me. That's the unlawful use of
the law, my brethren. The unlawful use of the law.
But Christ intervened with the gospel. Now if Paul had been
left in that state right there, that's what Paul is talking about
when he says the letter killeth. If he had been left in that state,
the letter of the law would have killed him and condemned him
in the day of judgment. He would have entered into judgment
saying, didn't I do many wonderful works and cast out devils? And
he would have heard, depart from me. Everything you've ever done
has been a work of iniquity. I never knew you. But Christ intervened by grace
and taught him the spirit, taught him the gospel of Christ and
brought him to believe on Christ. And he made him hear the law.
And when he made him hear the law, that law keeping that he
thought made his sin to be dead, that law keeping became his greatest
sin. Because he saw he really hadn't
kept the law at all. when he was made to hear the
law. He saw that law keeping it was my greatest sin because
I thought I was keeping it and I never was. I never was. And he died. He died. He saw
he was a sinner, dead and condemned under the law. And look now,
I want you to see this. I don't think I've ever seen
this quite this clearly. Look down at verse 12. Because
he was made to hear the law and made to hear that law declare
him guilty and shut his mouth, he says, verse 12, wherefore
the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good. The reason
that Paul, an ever believer, delights in the law of God and
the inward man, is not because the law tells us we're holy and
righteous and good, it's because the law told us we're not holy
and righteous and good, and it shut us up to Christ. That's
why we delight in the law. He says later, if I do that I
would not, I confess the law is good. If the law tells me
that, it's good. It's good. That's what the proper
use of the law is, to tell you you're a sinner. You are condemned,
you are dead, you need Christ. But the bad way the letter killed
is, He said in verse 11, Sin, taken occasion by the commandment,
deceived me and by it slew me. See, it wasn't the law's fault.
He said sin did it. Sin deceived me into using the
law unlawfully and that slew me. That's what killed me. Now,
go back with me. to our text. And let me make
this statement, and I pray you hear me, and anybody listening
to this, I pray you will listen to me carefully now. If you imagine
that you have to keep the letter of the law in addition to Christ, you cannot be saved because Christ
profits you nothing. That's exactly what Paul said
in Galatians 5.2. He said, I, Paul, say unto you
that if you be circumcised, that is, after you profess to be saved
by Christ, if you insist that you must keep the Ten Commandments
in order to be saved, 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 you are, justified by the law, you have
fallen from grace. And if that's our case, Paul
said, as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.
Because it's written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not
in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them. And you and I can't do that. You can only fulfill the
law in perfection. That's the only way God regards
it as fulfilled, is in perfection. That's why He had to send Christ. That's why Christ had to go to
the cross. God only regards the law fulfilled in perfection.
And Paul says, no man is justified by the law in the sight of God.
It's evident. Because the just shall live by
faith. And the law is not of faith.
That's what they say. We're living by the law. It's
our rule of life. The law is not of faith. The just live by the rule of
faith and the law is not of faith. It's just not. But the law says
the man that does the law shall live in the law. Somebody told
me a sad story. That article that's in the bulletin
today that I wrote about believers keep God's law in perfection.
Apparently, Rich Petrosky posted that online and somebody, I was
told this, somebody commented on that article, on the statement
I made when I said, the law is only kept in perfection. That's
why believers can't keep it. And he wrote back, he wrote him
and he said, the Bible doesn't say that. The Bible doesn't say
that. That poor sinner, is deceived
by sin. Because I just read to you where
the Bible says that. The Bible said, Cursed is the
man that does not continue in all things that are written in
the book of the law to do them. That means you have to do the
whole law in perfection. Christ is the only one that did
that. And that's our message. Now this is the third thing.
We preach the Spirit because the Spirit giveth life. The letter killeth, the Spirit
giveth life. Verse 8, the Spirit is called
the ministration of the Spirit. The Gospel is the ministration
of the Spirit. Verse 9 is called the ministration
of righteousness. Now, the Spirit giveth life. You notice there the word Spirit
is a little s. It's a little s. That means He's
not talking about God, the Holy Spirit. Now, don't misunderstand. We're going to see as we go through
that chapter that God the Holy Spirit is the one by whom this
spirit, this little s spirit is ministered. No doubt about
that. But what he's talking about here
is the Word of Christ. That Christ speaks. That Christ
speaks effectually in our hearts and quickens us to life. That's what the word spirit means. John 6 and 63, Christ spoke exactly
what Paul is saying here. Paul is quoting Christ in what
Christ said. Christ said, it is the little
s spirit that quickeneth. It's the little s spirit that
quickeneth. It giveth life. That's what our
text says. The spirit quickeneth. It giveth
life. What did he mean by that? The
flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are little as spirit and they are life. What's he saying
there? Paul's saying that preachers
are ministers of the Spirit. But Christ says here, He's the
minister of the Spirit. He's the one that speaks the
words in our hearts and quickens us to life by that Word. So why
did Paul call his preachers ministers of the Spirit? Go to 1 Peter
1. 1 Peter 1. Peter quotes Christ as well. And he says the same thing that
Christ said. The words of Christ are the Spirit. And their life, when Christ speaks
into our heart, look here in 1 Peter 1. And look here at verse 22. Peter says, you have purified
your souls in obeying the truth through God the Holy Spirit.
You see, the gospel of Christ makes the heart holy and pure.
The law doesn't do that. So the law is not for sanctification,
the gospel makes the heart holy and pure. It purifies the heart.
Verse 23, here's how it's done. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible. You see that incorruptible seed?
What is that? That's what Christ was saying
when He said, the words that I speak unto you, they are little
s spirit and they are life. They're the incorruptible seed
that Christ, our everlasting Father, births us, conceives
His child with. That's what the Spirit is. The
Spirit is the incorruptible seed. The Spirit of our text is incorruptible
seed, the Word of God that Christ speaks into the heart. Look,
He says, it's the incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth,
you see that, which is life and abides forever. Now listen to
this, for all flesh is grass. And verse 25 says, but the Word
of the Lord endures forever. Christ said, the flesh profits
nothing. The Word I speak is spirit and
life. The incorruptible seed that I
plant in you is spirit and life. Your flesh profits nothing. The
works of the law profit nothing. You going back to Moses accomplishes
nothing. It's the gospel that I speak
into your heart that's going to purify you and make you obedient. So why did Paul call his preachers
ministers of the spirit? Look down at verse 25 at the
end. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto
you. That's why. Because Christ does
this by sending forth His preacher to preach this gospel to you.
That's why Paul said we preach of the Spirit, not of the letter. Because the Spirit gives life. The only thing that quickens
and gives life. And you know, when you go through life and
you're down and you've fallen into sin or anything like that,
you know what you need to hear? You need to hear the gospel again.
You don't need to be whipped with the law, you need to hear
the gospel again. Because that's how Christ comes again and quickens
you back to life. So you can follow Him. And then
he says here, it's the ministration of righteousness. What does that
mean? When Christ speaks these words of life into our hearts,
He teaches us, He writes His law on our heart. Christ does. He writes the law on that new
heart He's given, that new life He's put in you. He writes the
law on your heart so that you can walk in that law and keep
that law. Well, how does He do that? He
teaches you. He's fulfilled it. and that you're
going to keep it and establish it by believing on Him and walking
by faith in Him. That's the new covenant of grace.
That's what we preach. That's what He teaches you in
the heart. That's how this is fulfilled. God said, this is
the covenant that I'll make with you after those days, saith the
Lord. I'll put my laws in your heart and in your minds. Will
I write them? What did our text say? What did
we see Thursday night? Paul said, you are manifestly
the epistle of Christ. Christ ministered this by us,
written, written with the Spirit of the living God in fleshly
tables of the heart. He wrote what? He wrote the Spirit. He wrote the covenant of grace,
the new everlasting covenant of grace. He didn't write the
old letter of Moses' Law on your heart. You had that. You knew
that it was wrong to steal a chicken. Read Romans 2. Paul says the
Gentiles know that. We already knew that. He writes
the Gospel on our heart. He writes the law of faith and
the law of love and the law of righteousness and the law of
sin and the law of Christ and the law of liberty. He writes
the Gospel on the heart so that you can bow and walk by faith
in Christ. That's how we keep God's judgments
and His precepts and do them. It's how all the Old Testament
saints were quickened and how they kept the law too. Listen
to Psalm 119. I have longed after thy precepts,
quicken me in thy righteousness. That's how all God's saints would
say, this is my comfort and my affliction, thy word hath quickened
me. I'll never forget thy precepts,
for with them thou hast quickened me. Teaching me Christ is my
righteousness. The entrance of thy words giveth
life, it giveth understanding to the simple. This is how all
God's people were saved. Always. God makes us, makes Christ
unto us everything we need to be accepted of God. He makes
He said in 1 Corinthians 1.30, Of God is Christ made unto you
wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
That's when God's made this everlasting covenant of grace on your heart.
That's when Christ has made you His epistle and written in that
fleshly heart that He's given, that new heart He's given, that
new spirit He's spoken into you. That's when He writes on it telling
you, He is all your righteousness and you're complete in Him. And
when you bow down and believe on Him, He ministers to you His
righteousness. And that's how you're made to
follow Christ and walk after Him and obedient to God. The obedience of faith. That's
how it happens. Listen and understand this, Christ
does not speak the words of life nor minister His righteousness
through the preaching of the letter. He does not. Because
that turns sinners from Christ back to Moses and back to themselves. And that's dishonoring to Christ.
He does not minister life or righteousness through that word.
No sir. The letter killeth. But the Spirit,
the Gospel of Christ, is the message through which He gives
life for obedience to the faith. That's why we preach Christ. Amen. Let's stand together, brethren. Thank you, Lord, that You have
taught us this difference between the Law and the Gospel. Thank
You, Lord, You've given us the light in our hearts for the law
because by it You have declared us guilty and shut our mouths
so that we could not do anything else but trust Christ. Thank
You, Lord, that You did it by preaching the Spirit to us, by
Christ giving us life and making the commandment come and making
us hear Your law and hear Your gospel. And Lord, thank You that
just like You constrained us in that first hour to believe
on You, by this Word of the Gospel, You keep doing it, making us
follow only You, and look only to You, and honor You in our
daily life by this Word. Thank You, Father,
that multitudes You pass by that You haven't shown us to. And
we are so thankful. We are so thankful for the Gospel. Forgive us, Lord, for looking
back to the letter, for looking back to our flesh, for entertaining
thoughts of self-righteousness. Kill that old man and keep us
looking to Christ. We thank You, Lord, in Christ's
name. Amen.