Good evening. We're going to
begin our evening service by standing and singing 118, Vast Beyond Imagination, 118. As beyond imagination is the
host of God's election, more than all the sands of oceans,
more than all the stars of heaven, Here they seem a small assembly,
weak and poor and ever needy. But when all are brought to heaven,
what a mighty congregation. Mighty through the land they
conquer, Lord, let me be in that number. Fixed in your predestination,
Savior, grant me your salvation. Good evening. I'm going to read the chapter
which contains our text for this evening. This is 2 Corinthians
chapter 3. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Paul asks, Do we begin again
to commend ourselves, or need we, as some others, epistles
of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? Ye
are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all
men. For as much as ye 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. And such trust
have we through Christ to Godward, not that we are sufficient of
ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency
is of God. who also hath made us able ministers
of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the
Spirit giveth life. 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 excelleth. For if that which is done away
was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.
Seeing then that we have such hope, 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 was abolished, but
their minds were blinded. For until this day remaineth
the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament,
which veil is done away in Christ. For even unto this day, when
Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when
it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now
the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is liberty. But we all with open face beholding
as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same
image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord,
we thank you, Father, for your great salvation, for your deliverance
of your people our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you
for this liberty. We thank you for our deliverance.
We thank you for our salvation and the knowledge of our God
and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you, Lord, for your
word. We thank you for those that have preached the word to
us. And we thank you for your spirit, which reveals the word
in us. Father, we pray that you would indeed look upon us, upon
this small congregation, that you would be pleased to bless
us, that you would pour out your spirit upon us, that you would
help us to hear by the hearing of faith, that you would bless
that word in our hearts and in our minds, and that you would
fill us with the grace and the strength of our God. Lord, that
you would help us in our endeavors to get the word out of our presence
here in the Senior Center. Lord, that you would bless the
advertisement, that you would cause your people to see it or
others to see it and to speak of it to others who will hear
and be moved to come and see what the Lord has done here.
Lord, that you would indeed bless this word that you would indeed
help me and strengthen me and teach me to be faithful in preaching
the word of our Lord and Savior because truly salvation is all
of you Lord and we depend upon you for everything and we cry
out and ask you Lord to please help us to please bless this
word to bless our hearts and to bring others in and Lord we
pray for our brethren who who are sick or wounded and can't
be with us tonight. We pray that you bless them.
We pray that you indeed bring a great number next week when
Brother and Pastor David Edmondson is here, that you would bless
him, give him the words to comfort your people and bless the work
here. And Lord, that you would help
us as we go to New Jersey and that you would bless the conference
there and that you would indeed bless the hearts of the people
gathered there and those putting it on and those that are invited,
that they would come and hear. And Lord, that you would bless
all your churches, bless your pastors, help them in the labor,
Lord. Help us to be faithful and diligent
in these things. We pray that you bless the word
tonight. that you comfort our hearts, that you give us rejoicing
and joy in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks. Amen. Our second hymn is number 13.
Deeper than the stain has gone, It's been a while since we sang
this, and if you don't mind, I'd like to try singing it tonight
with a little different music. Nathan Terrell had mentioned
that you could sing it to Life is Like a Mountain Railway. Well,
we don't really sing that hymn. The words aren't good, but the
tune is really nice. I tried to put something together
from a YouTube. It's still copyrighted, so you
can't just download an mp3. Anyway, let's try it out. I apologize
ahead of time if it doesn't come out too good. Dark the stain that soiled man's
nature, long the distance that he fell. Far removed from hope
in heaven, Into deep despair and hell But there was a fountain
open And the blood of God's own Son Purifies the soul and reaches
Deeper than the stain has gone Praise the Lord for his salvation. God still reigns upon his throne. And I know the blood still reaches
deeper than the stain has gone. Conscious of the deep pollution,
sinners wander in the night. Though they hear the shepherd
calling, they still fear to face the light. This the blessed consolation
that can melt the heart of stone. ? That sweet balm of Gilead reaches
? Deeper than the stain has gone ? Praise the Lord for his salvation
? God still reigns upon his throne ? And I know the blood still
reaches Deeper than the stain has gone. All unworthy we who wander, and
our eyes are wet with tears. As we think of love that sought
us, Through the weary, wasted years Yet we walk the holy highway
Walking by God's grace alone Knowing Calvary's fountain reaches
Deeper than the stain has gone Praise the Lord for his salvation. God still reigns upon his throne. And I know the blood still reaches
deeper than the stain has gone. When with holy choirs we're standing
In the presence of the King And our souls are lost in wonder
While the white-robed choir sings ? Then we'll praise the name
of Jesus ? ? With the millions round the throne ? ? Praise him
for the power that reaches ? ? Deeper than the stain has gone ? ? Praise
the Lord for his salvation ? God still reigns upon his throne. And I know the blood still reaches
deeper than the stain has gone. Thank you. Boy, those words are
beautiful. That really blessed my heart,
brother. Thank you. It's good. It's good. It's very
similar, right, to the other one? So that's why I was getting
the cadence on the deep. I was getting a little thrown
off, but I'd like to do that again to that tune. It was very good.
That's one verse in there that's a little quiet, but anyway. Yeah,
it was really nice. I liked it a lot. Thank you. All right. All right, brethren, so take
your Bibles and turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 3. This is where our
text is found. Now at this time of year, we
celebrate here in the United States our Independence Day. And it signifies our liberty
from the rule and the constraints of England, from the monarchy
there. It's our independence from their
rule and their having influence over us. And so we celebrate
this time of year on yesterday, July 4th. And there's a lot of
countries that have a day just like our Independence Day, where
they celebrate the time when they became free of some other
nation that had the rule over them. And it's a time of celebration
because the people of that newborn nation can now govern themselves
and make laws and do things that are right for the people there
in that place. But there's one thing that no
people can ever deliver themselves from, not by warfare, not by
political negotiation, not by good works. And that one thing
that man can never deliver himself from is from spiritual death
and bondage. None of us can deliver ourselves
from that bondage and that tyranny which is brought upon us because
of our sin. The scriptures teach us that
all men everywhere are alike. All men, regardless of where
they are in the world, all men everywhere are alike in their
spiritual bondage and in their spiritual depravity. It's described for us over in
Ephesians chapter 2. Why don't you turn there? Ephesians
chapter 2, verses 2 and 3. Before we're made alive and delivered
from this spiritual death and bondage, we're said to be dead
in trespasses and sins. And this death that we are born
into, this bondage that we're born into before life has come
is described for us in verses two and three. Paul writes, wherein
in time past ye walked, according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience. among whom also
we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. We walked, but we walked in shackles. We walked being chained. in this
bondage. And we were in bondage to an
evil spirit, the evil one, the devil. And we walked in disobedience. Our conversation was one of death. Our lusts were for the things
of death, and our desires were the things of death. Our nature
was one deserving of God's holy, just wrath. And our spiritual
bondage is pictured in the grave. None of us can take ourselves
up out of the grave. In like manner, none of us can
deliver ourselves from spiritual death. But we're told here in
this same passage in Ephesians 2 that we were, we that believe,
on the Lord Jesus Christ, we were made alive. It says in verse
one, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sins. Now, we don't deliver ourselves
from spiritual bondage. We're not our own deliverers
from spiritual death and this slavery. We're delivered by another. We're delivered by a savior. the Savior whom God has sent.
We are told in Ephesians 2 verses 4-5 that Christ is our Savior
according to the will of God. It says in verse 4, But God who
is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, Even
when we were dead in sins, hath quickened, hath made us alive
together with Christ. By grace ye are saved." This
is the liberty which is being declared to us in this passage
in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Look at verse 17. I saw this
verse and it blessed my heart yesterday. And so I thought to
bring a message being inspired by this verse. Now the Lord is
that spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Liberty. We have liberty, freedom,
deliverance from that spiritual death and bondage. First, our
Lord teaches us that Christ is our Savior. He's our Deliverer,
and we're saved by His death and His resurrection from the
dead. God raised Him from the dead.
And our Lord uses three things to reveal or to make known to
us our deliverance. from spiritual death and bondage. He brings this knowledge of the
salvation unto us using several means. He gives us the gospel. The gospel is the revelation
of the mystery of God which is revealed to us in Christ. He gives us pastors, those who
minister that gospel unto us. And he gives his Holy Spirit
to dwell in each of you, his children, to manifest this life,
to manifest this salvation, this deliverance, this liberty unto
you of what Christ has accomplished for us. And so tonight we're
going to look at a few scriptures that reveal these very truths,
that very outline. I've titled this Delivered from
Spiritual Bondage. So let's begin with Christ our
Savior. Christ is the salvation of God. Or God made salvation, He made
salvation, He gave us salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. He
made a way of salvation to deliver those people whom He loved and
chose before the foundation of the world. And He gave them into
the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. He put everything, your deliverance,
your salvation, your eternal life, your eternal inheritance
into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I can't think of
a better person to who to give it to, to put it all in His hands.
There's none better, none greater, none more beautiful, none more
lovely, none more able than the Lord Jesus Christ. And He accomplished
that work. He fulfilled all that the Father
sent Him to do. Now Adam was the first man in
the garden. He was created of God and he
was given dominion by God over the whole earth. But he sold
himself into slavery for nothing, for nothing. We see that concerning
Israel in the Old Testament, the Lord saying, you sold yourself
for naught. You sold yourself for nothing.
And that's exactly a picture of what Adam did for himself
and for all his posterity yet in him. That is, every single
one of us, his seed were yet in the loins of Adam. and he
seeded dominion that God had given him into the hands of the
evil one. A man plunged himself into spiritual
death and bondage. He became corrupt. He was defiled
immediately. He died that very day when he
sinned against God. And so he plunged himself and
all his seed into that death and damnation. Romans 5.12 says,
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death
by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. And so that's how God became
enmity to man. We became enmity against God. We looked at God as untrustworthy. We looked at God as the enemy.
We looked at Him as the bad guy. Even though we were the rebels,
we're the sinners, we became corrupt and defiled. We're the
wicked ones, not God. So the question for every man
this day, the question that man must settle is that most important
question that you or I can ever find the answer to. And it's
asked in Job 25 verse four, which asks, how then can man be justified
with God? How can I be justified? That
is God declaring you, pronouncing you righteous. How can God ever
call me righteous? How will God justify me? Or how
can he be clean that is born of a woman? Well, the answer
is Jesus Christ. The answer is the Lord Jesus
Christ. And God is gonna make that known
to every one of his chosen people. everyone for whom He loved, He
makes that glorious truth known, that Christ is my salvation,
Christ is my righteousness, I am justified of God in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And He settles that question
for us in our hearts. He gives us faith and trust and
hope and love for the Lord Jesus Christ, believing Him, trusting
Him, resting in Him, Not pursuing other religions not pursuing
other means of justification Resting in the Lord Jesus Christ
If you turn over to 2nd Corinthians 5 2nd Corinthians 5 we find this
phrase there 19 19 which says that God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto himself. God makes known to us that he
was in Christ. He sent Christ to reconcile his
people scattered throughout the world, Jew and Gentile, to make
them, to reconcile them unto himself because man does not
deliver himself. Man cannot deliver himself from
death and slavery, but Christ came. as the surety of his people. And what that means is he came
and said, put their debt on my account. I'll pay it in full
for them. They can't pay to set themselves
free. Put it on my account. I'll pay
the price that they owe, and they'll go free. I'll die their
death in their place, and they'll live. And so Christ is the one
that delivers us. That payment which he paid satisfied
the death that we owe, and he paid it with his own blood. The
scriptures say from Isaiah 53, surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. The Lord there says he was wounded
for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The
Lord tells us there that the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity
of us all. And you look at that scripture
in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21. It concludes what was done there
when God did this to his son, put his son to death. that Christ
sacrificed himself to obtain for us eternal life, we're told
here that God hath made Christ to be sin for us, who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And so God did this in order
to justify his people in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. that we should know how can man
be justified with God. Through the Lord Jesus Christ,
he accomplished our redemption. He paid the price that we owe. He put away our sins so that
we have obtained forgiveness with God and has given unto us
that eternal inheritance which he promised us in Christ before
the foundation of the world. He's accomplished our salvation.
And so Christ, our God, delivered his son, the Christ, to the cross
to die in our place and to accomplish this work. And he raised him
from the dead for our justification. And so by the Lord Jesus Christ,
his people are delivered. from that eternal judgment. His
people are delivered from that slavery, that bondage, that eternal
death which we could not deliver ourselves from. And this is all
according to His promise made unto us in Christ. Now, to make
this known to us, God uses means. By these means he accomplishes
the salvation in his chosen people for whom Christ died and obtained
life for them. In no particular order, these
are pastors, the gospel, and the Holy Spirit. And I'll cover
those in that same order. Pastors, the gospel, and the
Holy Spirit. Our Lord tells us In Jeremiah
3, verse 15, he says, I will give you pastors according to
mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. God promises to raise up men
and to send them to you to preach this gospel, to declare to you
what God has done through his son, Jesus Christ, to make known
this mystery which was hidden in the Old Testament so that
many people labored and died in the law not knowing what they
were doing, not understanding what it was speaking of and pointing
to. But God has determined to make
this known to you by sending you pastors who are, according
to his heart, who are taught of him, to make known, to make
plain what God has done in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look there
in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. We learn some things about these
pastors that the Lord sends. First, they're sent, and they
know, they're taught, and they're made to know by God teaching
them that they're coming to minister this gospel to the Lord's people. You're the Lord's people, you're
His sheep, you're His flock. He's put you here, He's gathered
you here, and He sent the Gospel here for your comfort, to deliver
you from that spiritual death and bondage. And Paul writes
in verse 3, forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the
epistle of Christ." Ministered by us, we serve, we minister
this gospel of Christ, but you're Christ's epistle. The fruit you
bear is the Lord's fruit. That which glorifies God is the
work and grace of your God and Savior bearing that fruit in
you, giving you this hope, bearing faith, the fruits of faith in
your hearts, bearing love for your Savior in your hearts, causing
you to pray and to cry out to Him is all the work of your Savior. It's written not with ink, but
with the spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone,
but in fleshy tables of the heart. And so Paul said, I pray that
Christ dwell in your hearts by faith. Because Christ dwells
in the hearts of his people, and he dwells there by faith.
If Christ abides in you and dwells with you, it's because you're
His child. And if the Spirit of God, if
Christ is not in you, it's because you have no part in Him. So,
you that believe Christ, you that trust Christ, that's a testimony
that Christ dwells in your hearts. Because no man speaking by the
Spirit of God can say Christ is accursed. And so He reveals
that in you. He reveals Christ in you and
you glory in Christ. And we're sent with one message
of hope. He tells us in verse 4, we're
sent to declare the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So it says in verse four, in such trust have we through Christ
to God or toward God. We're so confident that Christ
is the salvation of God. He's the one whom God anointed. He's the one upon whom the spirit
of God rested. He's the one whose work and ministry
was blessed so that he went and preached the gospel and called
out his disciples. And he faithfully went to that
cross. with men everywhere rejecting
him and despising him and turning away except for a few faithful
that he kept. in order that He would go to
that cross and not be delivered from that cross, in order to
deliver you from your just condemnation in Adam, because of your sins. Christ did that faithfully. And
so we're so confident that Christ is the very salvation of God,
we preach Him. He says there in 2 Corinthians
4, verse 6, for God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
he who created the heavens and the earth hath shined in our
hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. Such confidence we have in the
Lord Jesus Christ that that's the one whom we preach. He's
the one we tell you to flee to. He's the one God promises to
meet with you and to show you peace and comfort and forgiveness
in Him. And through the preaching of
that message, The children of the pastors whom God sends, they're
humble. They're humble. We learn, like
John the Baptist, who said, he must increase and I must decrease. And that's through the faithfulness
of your God to teach his pastors, to bring them low in themselves
in order that Christ may shine more brightly unto you. And Paul speaks of that later
on, even in chapter four, when he says in verse 10, always bearing
about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life
also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live
are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life
also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then
death worketh in us, but life in you. And so your God purposes
all this in order for you to hear this gospel and to be taught
and fed by the Lord Jesus Christ. We're taught that without Christ,
we can do nothing. And that, as I learned that,
it drives me to prayer. It drives me to cry out to Him
for your sakes, and that the Lord would uphold me and help
me in my studies, and help me in preaching the Word, and that
I'll bless this Word to your hearts. causing you to hear this
word by the hearing of faith, by his glory, by his work. Now
he says in verse, back in 2nd Corinthians 3 verses 5 and 6, Again, he says here what I was
just saying to you. It's not that we are sufficient
of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency
is of God, who also hath made us able ministers of the New
Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit. For the letter
killeth, but the spirit giveth life. And so you'll notice as
you read in this portion of 2 Corinthians here, you'll see words like ministered
and ministers and ministration. They're used in this text often.
And ministers of God, they're sent to execute the command of
their Lord. And the living God is their Lord
and master. And so we're sent to do what
he has sent us to do. And a minister is sent to relieve
the necessities of the one whom they are sent to serve. So we're
appointed to serve the people of God and we're sent to relieve
the necessities of the people of God. What is your necessity? How can a man be justified with
God? How can a man born of woman be
clean? How will God justify me and find
me righteous and declare me righteous and welcome me into the inheritance
of the saints? Through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our great need is to know how God justifies sinners. It's through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we preach to you what
God has sent us to preach, Jesus Christ. This end, God hath made
us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter,
but of the Spirit. Now, this letter is called in
verse 7, the ministration of death, written and engraven in
stones. Verse 9, it's called the ministration
of condemnation. What's he talking about there?
He's talking about the law, which was administered and given by
Moses. And if you seek to justify yourself
by the law, You're going to meet an angry God of wrath. If you think that you can keep
the law perfectly and that God will justify you for your works
in the law, you shall meet an angry God, God of wrath, who
will destroy you. You'll stand before God in the
day of judgment. The books will be opened and
you'll be judged according to your works. And then you'll be
thrown into the lake of fire. Because our works are wicked. Our works are full of sin. Our
works are full of unbelief. Our works are full of boasting
and glorying in self. But those whose names are written
in the Lamb's Book of Life, That's how we are delivered from
death. That's how we obtain eternal
life. And you can look that up later
in Revelation 20, it speaks of that. Those who are written in
the blood of the Lamb, they, their sins are forgiven. Their
works are covered by the blood of the Lamb, and they receive
and obtain the inheritance in Christ. So don't try to meet
God in the law, because you'll meet an angry God of wrath. And so for this cause, God hath
made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter.
We don't preach the letter. We don't drive you to Mount Sinai. We urge you, we point to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Behold, the servant of God. Behold, the one whom God has
sent, his son, Jesus Christ, to obtain salvation for you,
his people. So God sends pastors. Next, we
see that they are sent to preach the gospel, to minister Christ
unto you through the preaching of the gospel. According to 2
Corinthians 2 verse 14, we are described as making manifest
the savor of His knowledge by us in every place. That's a beautiful
picture of what it is to preach the gospel. making manifest the
savor of His knowledge, to declare salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ,
to put down your works for righteousness, to look to Him whom God has sent,
whom God has raised up, whom God put to death that you should
live and know God and have fellowship with Him and have peace with
your God and your Savior in the Lord Jesus Christ. We make manifest
that knowledge of what Christ has done. And to those who have
not the Spirit of God, it's a savor of death unto death, because
they hate that word. But to those whom the Lord loves,
it's a savor of life unto life. making manifest in you what God
has done through his Son, Jesus Christ, for you, his people.
Now, by the grace of God, the Spirit ministers this gospel
preached to you through the hearing of faith, through the hearing
of faith. We're making known what God has
given to us through his Son by promise, by promise. Listen to this word from Jeremiah
31, verse 33 and 34. Our Lord says, This shall be
the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after
those days, saith the Lord. Now listen, this is the word
of promise. There's no work for you to do.
This is what God shall do for you, his people. I will put my
law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and
will be their God, and they shall be my people. For they shall
teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying,
Know the Lord. For they shall all know me, from
the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord. For
I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin
no more." That covenant of promise, that new covenant, that covenant
of grace is established in the blood of the Lamb. And he that
believes God, that one shall be saved. Look over at Romans
10. Romans 10 verse 9. Paul says there, at the end of
verse eight, he says, this is the word of faith which we preach. We're preaching the word of faith,
that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and
shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Look at verse 13. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. And so we preach this
word, this gospel is the word of faith. You're believing the
promise of God made unto his people through the Lord Jesus
Christ, that salvation is by his blood. That's the promise
we believe. and you that hear it by faith
believe the Lord Jesus Christ, that yes, He is my salvation.
He is my righteousness. I believe Him. I believe that
God raised Him from the dead and that He raises me from that
spiritual death and delivers me from that bondage. And then
we see how the gospel is tied in the scripture to what is called
the ministration of the spirit, because the spirit also serves
this word, this hearing of faith unto us, raising us from the
dead, giving us a new birth, making us to be born again, delivered
from that death, delivered from that bondage, giving us liberty
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Through the preaching of the
gospel, which is the word of faith, the Spirit applies the
blood of the Son to your hearts, to your minds. He delivers you. He blesses you. He makes known
to you the blessings of God, to hear that promise, to reveal
that faith in His people, to cause them to hear it with a
new ear, to hear it by the Spirit, to hear it by faith. Look at
how it's worded. Well, let me just read it here.
I'll read a few quotes here from Galatians 3. In verse 2, it's
called, he says that ye received the Spirit. It wasn't through
the preaching of the law, it was through the hearing of faith.
And you that to whom the Spirit is ministered, he that ministereth
to the Spirit, does he do it by the works of the law or by
the hearing of faith? We declare the promises of God
made in his Son. So that down there in verse,
looking at 2 Corinthians 3, 4. He says that we receive the promise
of the Spirit through faith. We receive the promise of the
Spirit through faith. The Father and the Son promised
to send the Holy Spirit to dwell with us so that we would walk
in Him by faith. He sends the Spirit of adoption.
to dwell in us, to cause us to cry out to Him, to know Him,
to seek Him, to hunger and thirst for His righteousness, and not
look for righteousness in the law and by our works, but to
look for it through the promise of His Son, Jesus Christ. Now, let me just read a few verses
in closing from 2 Corinthians 3, and let's go to verse 12. Seeing then, Paul says, that
we have such hope. We use great plainness of speech. All we're doing is speaking of
the promises of God in Christ and what he promises to do in
giving you life through him. Not as Moses, which put a veil
over his face that the children of Israel could not steadfastly
look to the end of that which is abolished. But their minds
were blinded, for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken
away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done
away in Christ." They're hearing the law, and they're still hearing
and looking for what they need to be doing to be justified with
God. They're looking for a way to
justify themselves and to make themselves righteous by good
works, being good boys and girls and doing what the law says.
That's how they're trying to come to God. They don't see that
the law was given to show us our sin and iniquity, to show
us our great spiritual death. And so Christ accomplished this
redemption and he sends to you pastors, he sends to you the
gospel, he sends to you his spirit to dwell in you. But even unto
this day, he says in verse 15, when Moses is read, the veil
is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it, when the
heart shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. And he tells us in the next verse
who it is that takes the veil away, who it is that turns the
heart to behold the Savior. Now the Lord is that spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is liberty. There's none for whom Christ
died that are going to remain in darkness. He delivers all
His people according to His purpose of grace and the time of grace
for them. But we all with open face, beholding
as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same
image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Who teaches and reveals Christ
in us? It's the Spirit. For by grace
are you saved through faith, and that in and of yourselves,
it is the gift of God. Thank God for your liberty in
Christ from your spiritual death and bondage. Rejoice in him,
brethren. We rejoice in The liberty that
we gained in our country, but that's nothing compared to the
liberty that we have in Christ, that deliverance, that life,
that inheritance in Him, having a spirit whereby we cry and know
and have fellowship with the true and living God. Bless His
name, glory in Him, amen. Okay, let's pray. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you, Father, for your mercy. We thank you for
your grace. We thank you for your compassion,
which is given to us abundantly in the Lord Jesus Christ. We
thank you for his accomplished salvation. We thank you for the
gifts which you give to us in order to make known this salvation,
this deliverance, this resurrection that we have in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Lord, bless our hearts and our
minds. Grow us in the knowledge of these things, in the wisdom
that you give to your people, and in the spiritual understanding
that you give to us by the Spirit. Lord, we thank you for for this
salvation. We thank you for your word of
promise. We thank you for making it known
to us. It's in Christ's name we pray and give thanks. Amen. Our closing hymn is 143. 143, Savior hold your feeble
sheep. And we'll sing one, two, three,
and then five. We'll skip four. That's how many
verses I have in my phone. Mother, helpless children keep. Savior, hold your feeble sheep. Hold us fast, great Shepherd,
hold. Helpless lambs within your fold. Blessed Savior crucified, keep
us near your wounded side. We are ever prone to stray. Hold our hearts and make us stay. Let us humbly at your feet break
our pride and self-conceit. Make us all our vilest still,
by your spirit lay us low. Oh, defend your Purchase Sheep,
shepherd for your glory keep. Keep us safe and safe we stand,
none can rend us from your hand.