Second Corinthians 4. Don't know if titles are important,
but this sermon's got one. It's called New Covenant Ministry.
New Covenant Ministry. In verse 1, the apostle says,
we have this ministry. Now, ministry, you use that word
in our day, and people will automatically think of religious matters. But the word actually just means
service. We have this service. You probably recognize that use
of it if we remember the word minister. You minister to someone's needs. And so when we speak of a ministry,
we are speaking of some method of meeting some need. And those who are ministers within
the gospel are definitely acting as servants of God, but they
even, while they may be in leadership
positions, nonetheless, they conduct themselves even as servants
of the people to whom they minister. They don't lord it over them.
Peter said, but don't lord it over God's heritage. So he says, we have this ministry,
this work of service. Now, what ministry is he talking
about? Because not everyone in the ministry
with air quotes in the ministry, not everyone in the ministry
is involved in this ministry. In fact, I dare to say that most
of what goes on under the heading of Christian ministry isn't this
ministry at all, isn't what Paul's talking about. That's an unfortunate
thing to have to say, but it's true. And I don't say that trying
to claim we're any better. We're not better, but I do believe
that the gospel we preach is much better. than the so-called
gospel being preached in many places. Remember in the book
of Galatians, he said, you've departed the gospel for another,
meaning another gospel. And then he said, which really
isn't another gospel. The Greek has two words for another.
One means another of the same sort. And the other one means
another, not of the same sort. And so he first said, I'm surprised
you're leaving the gospel you heard for another gospel of the
same sort. And he said, but it's really
not another gospel of the same sort. In fact, it was not a gospel
at all, because a gospel means good news. And what they had
left the good news for was actually bad news, in all reality. Everything but
the good news of Christ is bad news. But he says this in verse
6 of chapter 3, he has made us competent as ministers of a new
covenant. Not of the letter, but of the
spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." Now, Paul had said that God always
leads his ministers in triumph, triumphal procession. And then he says, in this triumphal
procession, behind, as it were, King Jesus, and he was He was
bringing up the image of those Roman triumphal processions when
generals who had done well in army, and they were coming back
home, you know, and if they had conquered new territory, you
know, they'd put on a big parade for them. And the general would
be out in front, and then there would be, you know, his officers
behind them, you know, finally down to the rank and file. And
there were at the very back, the prisoners, the captives who
were to be executed once the parade was over. And there were,
they said there would be people throwing flowers, flower petals,
you know, and it would fill the air with a sweet smell. And Paul says that everywhere
we go, we are a sweet smelling savor of Christ unto God. And he says, to some, we are
the savor of life, and to others, the savor of death. And just
as in those Roman processions, as they would near the end of
it, and there was all those people shouting and, you know, glorifying
this general coming home, and there's that sweet-smelling flowers
and stuff being in the air. Oh, some of them smelled that,
and that meant life. That meant victory. They were coming home
the victors. What do you think it meant to the people in the
back scheduled to be executed? That was the same smell, smell
of death. And this gospel, this same gospel
preached to a crowd and there are in, you know, in a group,
in almost every group, there are those who believe and those
who do not. Even among those who maybe presently
don't believe and they hear the gospel, some of them will believe,
some of them will not. To some, this preaching of the
gospel is a sweet-smelling savor of life. And to others, and generally
these others to whom it is a smell of death, it is those who are
locked into religion. locked into a form of religion
in which they have approached God on the basis of their own
righteousness, on the basis of their own doings, and the gospel
comes and says, you're dead. You're dead. And then after he's done pointing
all that illustration out, Paul says, and who is sufficient for
these things? Imagine that. message that you
preach and to some it'll be a message of life and the exact same message
is a message of death to others. I know this, I am not sufficient
to make it a message of life to anybody or to make it a message
of death to anybody. I can say words, that's as far
as I can go with it. I study, I try to come up with
an outline that follows some kind of logical course so you
can see what I'm trying to say. But when I'm done, all that's
happened is a man has spoken some words. I'm not sufficient
to create life or pass sentence of death. But that same word that is translated
sufficient in that context here, he said, he has made us competent,
competent. We are sufficient for something
as ministers of a new covenant. Now, I can't make you like it, I can't
make you not like it, but I can serve it. That I can do. Those who preach, and you know,
this is for all of us, I realize that there are those such as
myself and other pastors, teachers and whatnot in churches, you
know, and God has given them special grace to do what they
do. But all of us who are partakers
in this new covenant are to some degree ministers of the new covenant. And I say to you, no matter what
you think about yourself, you are competent as a minister of
the new covenant. You say, You know, I try to talk
and I stumble all over myself and I can't think of the right
words and I just don't, that's not the issue here. Remember,
if you could speak like Shakespeare, well, you'd sound a little unusual
in our day maybe. I don't know who's eloquent in
our day, but if you had an eloquent tongue, and you were the best
theologian on the planet and you could put together the finest
sermon that had ever been heard other than those preached by
our Lord, it still would not make you sufficient to make it
life to some and death to others. For the sufficiency is not in
you, that is of God. But anyone who knows the gospel
can tell the gospel. And if you do have an opportunity,
and I'll give you just a little lesson here, if you do have an
opportunity to speak a word of the truth to someone else, tell
what you know, and don't let them get you sidetracked on issues
you don't know. Seriously, and that's one of
the ways people deflect the gospel. You come up, you tell them something
that's undeniably true and it pierces their heart and all at
once, well, what do you think about? And say, well, wait a
minute, before we get to what, you know, to your issue, let's
deal with the issue I just brought up. Stick with what God has taught
you already and what you know, because you can say that. And God will use it to Push forward
his purpose, whether it be a purpose of life or a purpose of death. And you, with stammering tongue,
may be the instrument God uses to bring life to some poor dead
sinner. So don't ever hesitate to tell
what you do know. And don't let them get you wrapped
up and distracted on things that you do not feel competent to
speak of, but you do know. You know these things, don't
you? You know you're a sinner, a sinner who needs a savior,
and that Jesus Christ was a sufficient savior for you. Well, you know
that. Well, tell them that. And if that's not enough, then
they're going to have to go somewhere else and find some more. But
if that's all you know, tell it. That's enough right there. But it's a ministry of the new
covenant, and that means it's not the ministry of the Old Covenant. You say, well, what is the Old
Covenant? He begins to describe it. He
says, in verse seven of chapter three, now if the ministry that
brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with
glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the
face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was.
Now, I believe it's Exodus 34. He's referring to what's recorded
in Exodus 34, when God met with Moses. And this is the second
time. He carved out a new set of stone
tablets because before when he'd gotten the law, the covenant,
he came down from Mount Sinai and the people were already breaking
it with both hands mightily in idolatry and debauchery. And
Moses just took those two tablets of stones and threw them down. Now he's gone back to get some
more. And so this was Moses receiving the old covenant from God. And what did that old covenant
include? Everything said on Mount Sinai. People like to divide
up that covenant. They say, well, there's moral,
Levitical, and civil aspects to it. And the only part of it
that's the old covenant which is passed away is the civil and
Levitical parts. I'm sorry, you can't find that
anywhere in the scriptures. That covenant, that old covenant,
everything said on Mount Sinai is an entire package, and it
stands or falls together. Now, often the immediate reaction
you get from that is, well, you don't believe in keeping the
Ten Commandments? And in one sense, I would say
yes, if you understand what they mean, but I'd also say this just
as strongly, no, we don't keep them as the Ten Commandments.
There are moral issues dealt with, but we don't keep them
because we find them in the Ten Commandments. We keep them for
another reason. You see, those Ten Commandments,
they were the bare minimum given to a hard-hearted, stiff-necked
people to maybe elevate them a little bit better, to conduct
their civil affairs a little bit better than the peoples that
would surround them, and to preserve them as a people until the promised
seed should come. Now, I was taught when I went
to Bible school, you know, my philosophy professor who was,
I mean, he was a believer. He believed what we believe in
terms of the gospel. One of the few sovereign grace
men at that school. And he would say that the Ten
Commandments is the rule and guide for Christian living. Hey,
I was 19. Okay, that's what the professor
said, you know. But as I have looked at this over the years,
I thought, You look at those Ten Commandments, they don't
even cover every aspect of life. If you take the Ten Commandments,
here's a surprising thing to think of. The Ten Commandments
condemn adultery, but not homosexuality. It doesn't say a word about it.
It condemns perjury, bearing false witness against your neighbor.
It doesn't say anything about common lying. So you see that even in the Ten
Commandments, and I'm not trying to diminish them, I'm just trying
to show you what they were and why they are not our rule for
living. We've got a much better rule,
one that covers everything, but the Ten Commandments, you can't
write enough laws, really, you cannot write enough laws to guide the conduct of a rebellious
people perfectly. Because the one commandment that
gives rise to every other good commandment is love. And when you understand what
love is, you don't need stone tablets with chiseled out words. You don't need to hang a moral
code on the wall. You know what to do. So that whole covenant, that's
not our ministry. Now some make that their ministry,
and they are perfectly free to do that, but it has consequences. It puts people under bondage.
It hides Christ from them. There was an occasion when our
Lord was speaking with the Pharisees and he said, you search the Scriptures,
for in them you think you have life. are the Scriptures that
testify of me but you won't come to me that you might have life."
Now why was it? They were so focused on that
Old Covenant and keeping the laws and make sure they had discovered
all what last I heard 600 and some laws or whatever you know
that came after the Ten Commandments and you don't want to make sure
everybody else is keeping them or knows that they are going
to hell because they didn't or something like that. So busy with that. that that ministry of the old
covenant blinded them to Christ. God was standing right there
in front of them and they didn't even know it. Messiah was in
their presence and they couldn't see it. Why? They were looking
at the law. They were looking at that old
covenant. They were looking at the thing engraved in stone and
it was killing them. Now, this covenant is a brand new
covenant. It's not a reforming of the old
one. It's not a, you know, some believe that there's this overall
covenant of grace and the old covenant was one version of it
and the new covenant is another version of it. No, that's not
the way the Bible presents it. The Bible presents them as two
distinct covenants. here's the interesting thing,
the one that is called the New Covenant is older than the one
called the Old Covenant. Because the New Covenant is ratified
by the blood of Christ and we read that Christ is the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. Abraham was never
a part of the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant didn't come
until Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and they all go down to Egypt 400
years there. Another 40 years crossing the
wilderness. I mean 40 years in Egypt and
they come out of Egypt and I'm not sure just how long it was
before they got to Mount Sinai. But it wasn't until Mount Sinai
that the Old Covenant came in. And the book of Galatians describes
it this way, it came in from the side. You
already had the covenant of promise. Covenant of promise first revealed
in the Garden of Eden and then confirmed in, well, Enoch, Noah,
and every other believing person. And then in Abraham, in you shall
all the nations of the earth be blessed. Well, has Abraham
been a blessing to anybody? Not really. But an Abraham seed,
you say, oh yeah, the Jews. No, one, one Jew has been a blessing
to all nations. One of the seeds of Abraham.
Paul makes that very clear. He said, the promises were made
to Abraham and his seed, meaning one, not seeds, meaning many. And that one seed is Christ. through him all nations are blessed. You know people are, some Christians
anyway, are worried that the United States will someday turn
its back on the nation of Israel and that God will judge us for
that. Well, I ain't going to get into politics because it's
irrelevant, but I can say this, there's absolutely no religious
reason to back the nation of Israel. There may be political
ones, like you would back any country that tends to promote
freedom more than the countries around them. Why? Israel as a covenant nation is
over. Why? Because the covenant is
over. Hebrews makes that clear. It
says that now that the New Covenant has been ratified in history
through the blood of Christ. Now it was ratified in eternity. and the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. But all those realities of heaven
must become real on earth. And therefore, Jesus Christ came
and he suffered. And the night when he established
the Lord's Supper, remember he said, this is the new covenant
in my blood. What does he mean? My blood is
going to put it in place. It's going to ratify it. And
once he established that covenant, once God established that covenant
in Christ, it says the old one was made obsolete. It didn't
mean it was made bad, just obsolete. You don't need it anymore. Its
function, its purpose had been served. And it was made obsolete, and
therefore, over a process of time, it just kind of faded out.
Now, the descendants of the Jews in our day, and I don't have
anything against them. I'm not an anti-Semite. I'm not
an anti-anybody so far as the things that pertain to the flesh.
But they are not the holy nation. Believers are. We are the royal
priesthood. And it's really always been that
way. But for 1,500 years God did give the nation of Israel
a favored position. They had the prophets, they had
the scriptures, they did have the worship in the temple which
with types and pictures, they had all of that. But the time
came for all that to be over and now in Christ there's neither
Jew nor Gentile, it's all irrelevant. Paul doesn't deny the glory of
the Old Covenant, and we don't either. I have no word to say
against it. It's not as though that we set
aside the Old Covenant because we think there's something wrong
with it. Again, in the book of Hebrews, it says that there was
a fault found in the covenant, but then he goes on to explain
it, for God finding fault with the people. There really isn't
any fault in the covenant itself. The fault is in the covenant
people. And the covenant of Mount Sinai
is good for people who never sin. It's completely inadequate
for sinners. As Paul said, for what the law
could not do in that it was weak in the flesh. Wait, the law didn't
have any flesh in it. What flesh is he talking about?
The flesh of the people of the covenant. Because the covenant
required their obedience in order to get the blessings. And they
couldn't obey. So no one ever obtained life
by that covenant. That's why he calls it a covenant
of death. So it's not like we're saying,
that was a bad covenant. No, not a thing wrong with it.
Just holy, righteous, good. But we're none of those things.
So that kind of covenant isn't going to work for us. Now, Christ comes. And he goes, he brings in a new
covenant, a covenant of the spirit of life instead of death, a covenant
that justifies instead of condemns, a covenant that brings great
hope instead of no hope, a covenant that lasts instead of fades away,
a covenant that sets free instead of shackles. And that's the ministry that
every God called minister has been called to. one of our children, I can't
remember who it was, but which of the three. We got one of these
family text groups, you know, and it goes clear back to 2018. But that's how Bonnie and I and
our three kids kind of keep in touch all day long. And they
put up an advertisement they saw for a church there near Nashville. And it said, we believe this,
we believe that, and we preach hell. And my child said, why
do they want to preach hell? And I responded, because nobody
in that church thinks they're going there. Hell's a fun subject
if you don't think you're going there, because you can make everybody
else squirm. But they preach hell. Well, I mention it, because the scriptures mention
it. But preaching hell doesn't save
anybody. That would be like a doctor.
You walk in, and he looks you over, and he says, you've got
cancer. And then leaves. Well, what good is that? Preaching hell isn't what God's
ministers are sent to do. That's not the end point of their
message. The character of their message is given to us in the
book of Isaiah. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, says the Lord. Tell her that her sins are forgiven. They have been paid for. That
doesn't sound like preaching hell to me. It's preaching salvation. It's preaching grace. He says,
Paul says we have this ministry by mercy. I sometimes wonder why God lets
me speak his name. Mercy. It's the only thing I
can say for it, because I don't have the right to speak his name
or the name of his son. It's asked in the book of Job.
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean thing? God. He brings the clean gospel out
of this unclean mouth. They used to tell us young people
in the church I was raised in, you know, be careful how we lived
and all this because God's not going to serve good food on an
unclean platter. And of course, I just kind of
accepted, I was a teenager in church, that's what they told
me. Later, I thought, well, if God doesn't use unclean platters,
what's he going to use? That's all there is. It's mercy, it's carried out
boldly. He says, we don't lose heart. It's carried out honestly.
He said, we've renounced secret and shameful ways. We don't use
deception, nor do we distort the word of God. You turn on
the TV or wherever it is you want to get your religion, most
of what you see is going to be secret and shameful things. There's
going to be what you see on the stage and then there's going
to be the things going on behind the scenes that you don't find
out about except once in a while. And it's a big scandal. And you
find out the men that are preaching there and talking so much about
morality are some of the most immoral men you'd want to run
into or wouldn't want to run into. and that they're building themselves
magnificent palaces of homes and piling up money for themselves
while they cry to you to send more money so that they can feed
orphans somewhere. He said, we're not doing that.
We're not distorting the scriptures. I know preachers do that. They
won't tell you the plain things in scriptures. Why? Well, you can't get a big
crowd with that. Do you realize that the more
clearly our Lord spoke the message concerning himself, the less
followers he had? John chapter 6, when he said,
unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of
Man, you'll no wise enter the kingdom of God. And there was,
you know, he didn't just have the 12. because there was others
that followed him around. And it says at that time, many
of his disciples no longer followed him. You'd taken too much on
yourself. We were with you about being
nice. We were with you about forgiving and all that stuff,
but you have put this whole thing in you, that no, we can't go
that far. They went home. Preaching the truth, we'll find
God's sheep. And it will save them, and it
will keep them, but it's not going to make, generally
speaking, for big churches, for notable churches, because the
world doesn't want that. What's the content of this ministry?
Look in verse 5, for we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ
as Lord and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake." Today's big celebrity preachers,
they're preaching themselves. Their websites are named after
them. Their ministries are named after them. When the announcer comes on to
introduce it, it's the name of the preacher you hear. And when
they're going to go off the air, you've been listening to da-da-da-da-da. It's never about Christ. They
preach themselves. Monty and I were watching a special
recently about one of the more notable preachers of the past
generation. And I always, while I thoroughly
disagreed with his message, I considered him to be certainly among television
preachers think like that, a more or less honorable man. He was
doing what he said he was doing. But the things that were revealed
in this documentary about his shameless self-promotion, it's
just parts of him I didn't know about. Paul said that's the secret
and shameful things. We preach Christ as Lord. Lord, that's what Peter said
on the day of Pentecost after he described the events of the
previous six, seven weeks ago when they crucified the Lord.
He said, according to the predetermined counsel and the purpose of God,
he was delivered over to you and you with wicked hands have
killed him, crucifying him. And then he says, let it be known
to all the house of Israel that this Jesus whom you crucified,
God has made to be Lord and Christ. That's why he says, we don't
preach us as Lord, we preach him as Lord. We don't say follow
us, we say follow him. And that's the basic content
of the gospel. Not Jesus loves you, not Jesus
is the Savior, Jesus is Lord. It starts there. Remember that
triumphal procession. Who do you think's at the front?
The victor, the conqueror, the Lord Jesus Christ. The man who's not willing for
Jesus to be absolute Lord has no part in him. I don't believe
this idea that, you know, unfortunately they call it lordship salvation.
That's not what it is at all. But they think that, you know,
you have to come up to a certain level of obedience before you
can claim that you're a Christian. No, I'll tell you this. I am
tickled to death. I'll just use that. I am tickled
to death that Jesus is Lord, but I'm not very good at following
him. That's because I'm flesh and spirit and the spirit can't
wait. The Spirit can't wait for Him
to be revealed in all His glorious majesty as Lord of heaven and
earth and everybody sees it. We live in a world that denies
our Lord, that mocks our Lord, that treats Him like dirt and
that hurts. It won't be that way forever. He is Lord. When Jesus Christ met Paul on
the way to Damascus, knocked Paul to the ground. What did
Paul say? Did he say, Savior? He said,
Lord, who are you? Now, he didn't know who it was,
but he knew what it was. He knew the title that this one
bore, Lord. He's a gracious Lord, a merciful
Lord. but He is Lord of heaven and
earth. And that's good news for everyone
whose hope is in Him. Because it speaks down here of
the God of this age, and the Greek word for God could be applied
to nearly any powerful person or being, and it's a reference
there, the God of this age is a reference to Satan. Boy, it
looks like He's in charge, doesn't it? I mean, let's face it, you
look at our nation, and the direction our culture is going. Christians
say, well, I want to impact the culture. Well, if that's what
we're supposed to be doing, we're doing a really lousy job, because it
is going the wrong way at light speed. I realize I'm certainly not as
young as I used to be. But really, when I was a kid,
it wasn't that long ago on the great scheme of things. And it
was remarkably different in that day than it is now. Why? In the
last 20 years, the things that were spoken of Well, it was kind
of out in public, but still it wasn't spoken of with approval. Now you dare not speak against
it. You might get in legal trouble. You might get sued. No, we're not impacting the culture.
And we really, that's not our goal. Our goal is to make known
the Lord Jesus Christ. And our desire is that people
will acknowledge him as Lord, bow to him as Lord, call him
Lord, and call on his name for his gracious salvation. But we present him as Lord. And the effect of this ministry
is some reject it and some receive it. And we've already dealt with
that. And then who carries this out, verse seven, but we have
this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing
power is from God and not from us. I thought I understood this
when I came here 34 years ago, just about 34 years ago. I thought
I understood, oh, it's not about me, it's not in my strength or
my talents, it's all by the power of God, I'm just some jar of
clay full of treasure. And I did believe that then,
I believe it even more now. Woke up in the middle of the
night last night, actually somebody tried to call me via Facebook
Messenger. Woke me up and then I lay there
awake for a while and I was praying. And I spoke to the Lord about what a lousy job I feel like
I've done, how unworthy I am, how useless. And then I thanked him that despite
all of that, he's done some great things. My mouth was open, but
it's his power that accomplished things. I feel my clay pottedness more
and more. But the more I feel how much
like a plain old clay pot, the more I feel like that, the more
I appreciate the wonderful treasure within. Well, being old clay pots as
we are, how can we carry out this ministry? What can we do
that makes us so we don't lose heart? We fix our eyes not on
what's seen, but on what is unseen. Not on
what is temporal, involved with this life, but what is eternal. If we look on what is seen, we
can't be anything but disappointed. If I look at what I have done,
how I've conducted a ministry, how I've lived as a human being,
if I look at that, you know, I think, boy, if I led these
people astray, you know, I'm not up to this. Nothing good
can come of this. If I look at what is unseen,
my Lord, my God, his gospel, His grace. And I say, despite
all that I see, He's the victor. He will have His people. Just go out and tell the truth.
The truth will find them. The truth will set them free.
And the truth will take them home. And like he told the prophet
Daniel after he'd given him some great revelations, He said, now
this ain't going to happen right away. So you go on about your
life, and you'll come to your end before these things take
place. But it'll be all right. Why? Well, Daniel was the one to talk
about it, but Daniel was not the one that was going to do
it. God was. Ministers of a new covenant,
a covenant which is not about if you do this, I'll do that.
It's God saying, I'm going to do this, and then doing it. Faithful is he who promised,
and will do it. Heavenly Father, thank you for
your gospel. Thank you for the privilege of
preaching it and hearing it. And I ask, Lord, that you would
bless those that have come, that the things that have been spoken
will indeed be used by you for their eternal welfare and for
your glory. In the name of Christ, we pray it. Amen.