Let's turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
3. We're here a couple weeks ago
in this chapter, and Paul is declaring that believers are
the epistle of Christ. We are the letter of Christ. And the radical thing that Paul's
declaring here is that salvation is not by the works of man. It's not our decision. It's not
what we do or don't do that determines our salvation. Salvation is of
the Lord. It's all of His work, the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you were to go home after
services today and write a letter, You could choose whom you were
writing that letter to, and you could write anything you wanted.
You could steer that letter and put in that letter whatever it
is that you wanted. Why? Well, because you're the
author of it. It's your letter. You can write
what you want. You can put in it what you want.
You can leave out what you want. It's your letter. Well, the scriptures
tell us that Christ is the author and finisher of our faith. We are his epistles, his letters. That's what it means. We are
his letter. We are the epistles of Christ.
Now one of the things that our Lord Jesus Christ has done in
writing his epistles, in writing his word on your hearts, in revealing
himself to you and manifesting your fruit, is he gives pastors
and preachers to minister the gospel to you. And Paul calls
it the ministration of the Spirit. It's the work of Christ. It's
the ministry of the Spirit, the ministration of the Spirit. And
what our ministry, as preachers and pastors, what our ministry
is, what that means is to preach Christ crucified to you. It's to declare Christ. It's
to reveal Christ to the people of God. This is how pastors and
preachers minister the Spirit to the people of God. We simply
declare what God has revealed by His Spirit and grace in our
hearts. We declare Christ to you. That's
what He's showing us. That's what He's revealing to
us. That's what He's teaching us is Christ. It's the person
of Christ, the work of Christ, the doctrine of Christ, the salvation
of Christ by Christ. We declare what Christ has accomplished. And so Paul says in 2 Corinthians
3 verse 4, and such trust have we through Christ to Godward,
or toward God. Such trust have we through Christ
to Godward. We are so confident that Christ
is the fullness of God for you. We are so confident that Christ
is the fullness of God's salvation, his will and purpose for you
that we preach Christ. That's how confident we are that
Christ is the very salvation of his people. He's our savior. He is our salvation. We're so confident that not only
is he sufficient to save you to the uttermost, but he's all
your salvation. Everything you need to be accepted
of God, to stand before God, accepted of him, holy, perfect,
justified, is all in Christ. Everything you need is given
in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Such trust have we through Christ
toward God. We are so confident in Christ,
so confident in Him that we preach salvation by Christ alone, not
Christ plus, Christ alone. He is salvation. He is your Savior. Do you believe that? It's so. It's the truth. Christ is salvation. Anything you require, Christ
provides it all. For it pleased the Father that
in him should all fullness dwell. Colossians 119. In Him, it pleased
the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. He is salvation. The Father,
when He chose His people, you that believe Christ, you in whom
He manifests the fruit of the Spirit, love, faith, and hope
in Christ. When God the Father chose you,
He put your care and your keeping entirely in the hand of Christ.
He gave you to Christ for Christ to save you. And Christ promised,
He agreed, the Son agreed, that when He returned, He'd have the
children with Him. All that the Father gave Him,
He would lose none. None, but he would do that very
work which he was sent to do. He accomplished it. So we declare
unto you that our Lord Jesus Christ came and he redeemed his
people. And that word redemption, that
word redeemed means he purchased his people. He bought us from
death and destruction, out from the hand of God's justice. He purchased us. He delivered
us from that justice to make us his own people, to bless us
in himself. And the way he purchased us is
through his sacrifice of himself, his death on the cross as the
substitute of his people. That means He took our place.
He came and stood in our place under the wrath of God, bearing
the sins of His people to put them away forever. To make a
covering for our sin with His own blood. So that God doesn't
judge you on the basis of what you do or don't do. He judged
us in Christ. And we are made righteous in
and by the Lord Jesus Christ. So the scriptures teach that
we're sinners by nature. We're sinners. When we are born,
we're born of Adam's seed, and Adam's seed is corrupt. And the
corruption is that there's no spiritual life. There's no spiritual
life. When we are conceived, we are
conceived in sin. When we are born, we come forth
sinners, having no spiritual life, no understanding of God. And so the scriptures teach that
the carnal mind, that is what I think, what you think, the
carnal mind is enmity against God. That's why in the garden,
after Adam ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, When he heard the voice of God walking in the
cool of the garden, the voice being Christ, the word of God,
when he heard that voice walking in the cool of the garden, he
ran the other way. He took off to the woods to hide
himself among the trees and to cover himself with fig leaf religion,
false religion, trying to cover his nakedness before God. That enmity that we see in Adam,
that's the enmity of our heart. Now most people say, well I believe
in God. I worship God. I give God his respect. Yeah,
the God of your own imagination. All throughout the history of
the world, nations and peoples and tribes and tongues have worshipped
and bowed down to some God that they served and feared. But it's
a false God. It's the God of their own imagination.
They're idolaters worshipping themselves. worshipping themselves. And so we're sinners. James says
it this way, whosoever shall keep the whole law, you could
do everything perfectly. I think it's 613 commandments
in the law. You could do every one of them
perfectly except for one. You can get 612 right except
for one. And James says, when you offend
in that one point, you're guilty of all. You've broken the whole
law. The whole law. That's what the
word of God says. You can be so close to being
perfect, and yet you fail in one spot, you're guilty of the
whole law. The whole law. So Christ came
to redeem us from that death that we deserve. He redeemed
us, brought us out from under the wrath of God, and He purchased
us. This is how the prophet Isaiah
words it. Listen to what he says in Isaiah
53, verses 5 and 6, speaking of Christ, says, He was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He laid it on him. And so this
describes how Christ redeemed, purchased his people, taking
our place under the wrath of God, bearing our sin to put it
away forever. to satisfy God's justice. And God raised his son from the
dead, so declaring that he who on the cross said it is finished,
that he is true and righteous and just. God justified him by
raising him from the dead. And all that believe Christ and
trust his blood, his righteousness for their righteousness, they
are justified with God. holy, accepted, God is pleased
with you in and for Christ's sake. He is precious. He is wonderful. He is the savior
of his people, and we have life in him. Paul says in Romans 8
31, what shall we then say to these things? If God before us,
who can be against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? In Christ, he's everything. Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that
justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. This is why God's people have
such trust in the Lord Jesus Christ toward God. This is why
we have such confidence in Him, such trust in Christ. He is our very redemption in
life, and Jesus Christ is the one whom we preach, because He
is the Savior. He is all our salvation. Now,
in addition to giving you pastors and preachers to proclaim the
accomplished redemption, the accomplished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ, our Lord reveals and tells us that we must be
given spiritual life. He must give us life and he does
this by giving the Holy Spirit to his people who takes this
word, who takes this glorious good news and makes it effectual
to your hearing, makes you to hear it, makes you to believe,
makes you to trust Christ for all your salvation. He gives
the ear to hear this glorious good news by faith. Our Lord
would often say in his word, he that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. Well, don't the majority of people
in the world have ears that hear? Yes, but he's not talking about
the natural hearing of you and I. He's talking about hearing
by the Spirit, hearing with the ear of faith. When our Lord was
dictating his letters to the churches in Revelation, those
seven churches, like Ephesus and Laodicea and Smyrna, Philadelphia,
when he was writing those letters, he concluded each one to those
churches, saying, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit saith unto the churches. And so he's talking about the
regeneration by the Holy Spirit. We must be regenerated. We must be born again. We must
be given spiritual life without which We won't hear this word
in spirit and in truth. We won't hear this word with
the enmity put away from us. We'll continue to hear it in
death. We'll continue to hear it in the flesh, making application
to the flesh and to our works and what we do, rather than looking
to Christ and living by Him and His grace. We must be made alive. Our Lord spoke of the Holy Spirit,
calling Him the Comforter. He said, when the Comforter is
come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit
of truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify
of me. Such trust have we through Christ
to God were. The Spirit testifies of Christ,
and we testify of Christ by the grace of God given to us in the
Spirit, and we're so confident that we preach him. We preach
him that he is the very salvation of his people. This regeneration
of the spirit is the new birth that Christ spoke of to Nicodemus
when he said, ye must be born again, Nicodemus. You must have
a new birth. The birth that we have naturally
by Adam is, we're dead spiritually. We're corrupt, we're defiled,
we're ruined. We don't know the truth. We must be born again. And that's the spirit's work.
The spirit births the new creature. And we don't have any part of
that, except the happy recipients of it, or may the joyful recipients
of this gift. It's not that, I know the world
teaches that you must believe first, you must have faith, and
then God will save you. Then he'll give you the spirit.
That is impossible, because faith is a fruit of the spirit. Faith
is born of the spirit. Faith is not of this flesh. Christ said it this way, that
which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of
the Spirit is spirit. I don't want a faith of this
flesh. I want a faith, I need a faith
of the Spirit. And so do you. We need the faith
that the Spirit bears in the children of God. We need that
which is given to us through the grace of God in the Lord
Jesus Christ. So Christ redeemed his church
by his death and resurrection and he sends forth the Spirit. and his word to take this word
and make it effectual with power in your heart all by his grace
doing that for us which we cannot do for ourselves even under the
law we cannot do it but he does he's able and he does it this
is the grace the power and the gift of God which Paul is attributing
to the work of the ministry when he says in verse In 2 Corinthians
3, 5, not that we are sufficient of ourselves, this isn't because
I'm something, I'm nothing. I'm like you, brethren. I'm just
a man, just like you, with all the same problems, nothing special
about me. Not that we are sufficient of
ourselves to think anything is of ourselves, but our sufficiency
is of God. It's of God. It's of Him. The
knowledge, the understanding, the gifts that each of us has
is all of Jesus Christ. All because of Him. All by Him. It's through Him. This which
is shown to us and manifest in us is of His hand, of His grace. It testifies of the regeneration
of His Spirit. That's why you believe and trust
Christ, and hope in Him, and love Him, and follow Him, and
seek Him, because the Spirit is given to you. And He's caused
you to hear His Word, to show you your need of Him. to find
in Him everything you need to be accepted of God, to know that
we are accepted of God because of Him. And this is the Spirit's
work whereby Christ's ministers are made sufficient, made useful. in the work. It's by His grace. And what He does in His pastors
and preachers, those ministering the Spirit, He does in every
single one. He gives the gifts severally
as He will, to whom He will, but it's His work, just like
it's in us, So it is in you, brethren, our gifts are given. Paul said in Colossians 1, 12,
giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Who made
us meet? My works? No, the Father did,
in giving us Christ, in providing Christ, in putting us in Christ
Jesus. That's how we are made meet to
be partakers of the inheritance with the saints in light, by
Him. Here's another testimony in Peter,
2 Peter 1, verses 1 through 4. Turn there. It's good to see
this. 2 Peter 1, and in verse 1, Peter
starts right off saying, Simon Peter, a servant,
and an Apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like
precious faith." The faith we have, we've obtained it. It's been given to us. It's a
gift that is given to us, obtained like precious faith with us,
with the Apostles, through the righteousness of God and our
Savior, Jesus Christ. Not through our works. not through
our 10-step plan to a better life, no, by Christ, through
the righteousness of God and his Son, Jesus Christ. And so,
and he goes on showing that the gifts, the gifts of faith, the
gifts of peace are all through his grace. He says, verse two,
grace and peace be multiplied unto you. multiplied unto you
through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord." That
knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord is given, it's revealed,
it's taught to us, given through a spirit who gives an understanding
to receive this word, to see, to understand the mystery of
and to declare the mystery of God's salvation to you, which
is Christ in you, the hope of glory. According, as His divine
power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto
life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called
us to glory and virtue. All this life which we have in
Christ is given, given freely, graciously, sovereignly given
to us in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. whereby, verse four,
are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by
these, these gifts which are obtained by Christ and given
to his church, given to the body, the members of his body as he
pleases, that ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having
escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
did this for us, brethren. And it's the same Christ, the
same power that is the sufficiency for us to stand here and preach
it. And it's the same power and sufficiency which enables you
to hear it, to receive it, to believe the Lord Jesus Christ,
to trust him for all your righteousness. Now, Christ, therefore, brethren,
is our ministry. He's our ministry. That's how
we minister the Spirit to you, declaring to you, preaching Christ
to you, trusting that He will visit you and make His word effectual
in your hearts. I'm not laying out a 10-step
program or 12-step program or 3-step program for you to follow
to get yourself saved. I'm just declaring what Christ
has accomplished, trusting that He makes it effectual in your
hearts. That is ministering the Spirit
unto you, preaching Christ, preaching His redemption, declaring His
work of regeneration for His people, that He gives the gifts,
that He bears the fruit, that He rooted you in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and that He is your salvation. He is your salvation, that you
would be constrained with love, love for Him, love for your brethren,
that you would rejoice to walk in this truth, rejoice to walk
by faith, to hunger and thirst for His righteousness and to
be satisfied with Him and Him alone. And so this is the ministration. This is what Paul says in 2 Corinthians
3, 6. who also hath made us able ministers
of the New Testament. That's what he's given to us.
He's made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the
letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth. It'll
put you to death. It'll destroy you. You'll sink
down to hell with a millstone tied around your neck looking
to and trusting and trying to do the law for righteousness.
It is death. It is death to you. It is condemnation
to you. But the spirit giveth life. The Spirit giveth life. For me
to open this book and to preach that same letter to you which
the Jews heard and the Pharisees heard and trusted that they could
not keep, that's death. And then to see you failing and
to start whipping you and beating you and telling you, try harder,
try harder. You better get serious now. You're
going to hell if you don't try harder. That's death. That's
ministering death to you, ministering condemnation to you, because
you cannot keep the law. Christ is our righteousness. For me to threaten you of condemnation
is to lay on you stripes and burdens and the yoke of the law
that you cannot keep. Paul said we're warning every
man, teaching every man. In other words, what he's saying
is we're warning, don't trust your works. Fly to Christ. Trust Christ. That's the warning. Stop trusting your works. Trust
Christ. Hear Him. Through this man is
preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. Christ came. He died. He rose again. He is
the salvation of his people. That's the salvation, Christ.
That's the ministration of the spirit. And that's what Paul
calls it in verse eight of this chapter. He calls it the ministration
of the spirit. And in verse seven, what does
he call it? The law, the preaching of the law is the ministration
of death, written and engraven in stones. It'll kill you. It'll
destroy you. It'll ruin you. It'll bring you
to a bankruptcy from which you cannot be delivered. You cannot
pay. Verse 9, he called it the ministration of condemnation.
Brethren, Christ is our salvation. Such trust have we through Christ
to Godward. Not that we're sufficient of
ourselves to think anything is of ourselves, but our sufficiency
is of God. It's of God who also hath made
us able ministers of the New Testament to preach Christ crucified
unto you, not of the letter, but of the spirit, for the letter
killeth, but the spirit giveth life. Paul said it this way in
Romans 8, 24. We wait on Christ. He says, for
we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For
what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope
for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. We wait upon Christ. We trust
Him. We see by faith. We believe that
by faith we are righteous. We are accepted of God. Christ
is our salvation. Christ is our Savior. Christ
is all unto you. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ is all. Likewise, the
Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not What we should
pray for, as we all, we're weak in the flesh. If you think you're
keeping the law, you're lying to yourself. You're not keeping
the law. You're not perfect in your trusting
of the law. You're going to fail, at least
in one part, and many more, if we're being honest. But the Spirit
helpeth our infirmities. We don't know what to pray for
as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with
groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts
knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession
for the saints according to the will of God." According to God's
purpose for you. He intercedes. And he prays that
the Lord keep you and bless you and teach you, giving you knowledge
and understanding in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. We preach
Christ and trust him to work his grace in your hearts, in
our hearts, and in your hearts. We wait upon Him, not moving
off of Christ, but trusting He does exactly in your hearts,
exactly according as He purposes and pleases to do. Look over
at Luke chapter 12, Luke chapter 12, verses 45 and 46. Our Lord says, this is an example
of someone who doesn't wait on Christ. This is an example of
someone who turns you to the law, to the ministration of condemnation
and death. Luke 12, 45, but and if that
servant, that preacher or pastor should say in his heart, my Lord,
the Laith is coming. Where's the fruit? Where's the
fruit from the people of God? The Lord delays his coming, and
he shall begin to beat the men, servants, and maidens. With what? How's he beating them? With the
law. With the law, he starts beating you. What are you doing?
Where's your fruit? He starts beating you with the
law. And to eat, and drink, and to be drunken, drunken with another
spirit. The spirit of the Old Testament
and not the New Testament. That one who gives life and peace
and graciously ministers the word of God, sowing it in your
heart. That's not the spirit that Christ
gives to the ministers of the New Testament. That's not our
sufficiency. The law isn't what makes us sufficient
and able ministers before God. Christ does. Christ does. hearing and rejoicing in His
redemption. And so the spirit He gives to
you blesses you in Christ with all spiritual blessings. Verse
46, the Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh
not for him and at an hour when he is not aware, he's talking
to the ministers of this word, and cut him in sunder and will
appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. Unbelievers,
yeah, he doesn't trust Christ. He's not entrusting you to Christ.
He's turning you to Mount Sinai rather than turning you to Christ. and preaching Him and believing
that Christ will bless you, Christ will teach you. So we minister
the Spirit by preaching Christ crucified, what He has accomplished
for His people on the cross and how that He keeps you and blesses
you. But now we are delivered from
the law, that being dead, wherein we were held, that we should
serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. We are regenerated, blessed by
the Spirit of God, filled with the glory of Christ, through
the Spirit, by His grace and mercy, that we might hear and
rejoice in Him. and bless him and give all the
glory, praise, and honor to Christ's name. It's not by the letter
of the law. Don't look to it. It's got no
power. Christ, our God, has sown his
word of commandment in our hearts to love God and to love your
brethren, to love your neighbor as yourself, to seek him, to
trust him, to pray to him and entrust yourself and your brethren
to him. Look to Christ and live. It's
the spirit that quickeneth dead sinners, working true repentance
in our hearts toward God and Jesus Christ. Therefore, if any
man be in you, old things, he's a new creature, old things are
passed away. Behold, all things are become new. It's his work
or his epistles to the praise, honor, and glory of his name.
Amen.