Now let's open our Bibles to
2 Corinthians chapter 5. This morning I want to talk to
you about this subject, the gospel ministry. The gospel ministry. Now, as many of you already know,
the word gospel simply means good news. And the context of
the whole Bible teaches us that the gospel is good news to sinners,
to people who have been convinced by the Holy Spirit of their need
of God's grace in Christ. It's not good news to those who
have not been convinced. those who see themselves as righteous
in themselves. It's not good news to them. That's
why, for example, the Pharisees in our Lord's day, why they were
so offended at the gospel. I often think about the Sermon
on the Mount in that sense because when the Lord stood before the
people and He proclaimed in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 20, He said,
except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and the Pharisees, which at that time were the most religious,
moral, dedicated men of their day, the ones who were the spiritual
leaders, the ones who claimed to know the scriptures better
than anybody else. He said, if your righteousness
does not exceed theirs, you shall in no wise or in any case or
in any way enter into the kingdom of heaven. And that's a startling
statement. I told my Sunday school class
this morning, I said, I'm going to be talking about political
correctness today a little bit. As you can see, our Lord's ministry
and His message, He wasn't too politically correct in His presentation
of the gospel. But He did say this in Matthew
chapter 5. He said, blessed are the poor
in spirit. For they shall see the kingdom
of God. They shall enter the kingdom
of God. Theirs is the kingdom of God. The poor in spirit. And that's a sinner who's been
convinced of sin. A sinner who's been shown first
hand by the power of the Holy Spirit. What he is by nature. That he deserves nothing but
condemnation. That all he can do is throw himself
upon the mercy of God. and plead Christ. And that's
good news when Christ is preached to a person like that. That's
good news to a real sinner. And I tell you what, if you know
your frame, if you know your sin, and you're looking anywhere
but Christ, you're not going to have peace. You're just going
to feel condemned all the time. And rightly so. Because there
is nothing but condemnation for sinners outside of Christ. But
here's the good news. Christ is our hope. Christ took
away condemnation for his people by his being condemned himself
on the cross for our sins charged to him. That's what the book
of 2 Corinthians is about, especially here in the gospel ministry.
Now the word ministry means service. That's what it means. It doesn't
mean highfalutin officials of the church who go around wearing
funny collars. It's a ministry is a servant. A ministry is a servant. That's
what it is. So the gospel ministry. Now in
2 Corinthians 5, this passage, this portion of the word of God
is concerning what the apostle Paul calls the ministry of reconciliation. And I'm going to talk more about
reconciliation later on in other messages as we go through this
chapter. What is it to be reconciled?
Well, you know what it is. You've heard people who get divorced
because of irreconcilable differences. They can't get together. They
can't come together on a common ground. Well, reconciliation
has to do with God reconciling His people, His chosen people,
unto himself where they come together on a common ground.
And the common ground is stated in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse
21. Look at the last verse. And this
is what I'm leading up to in going through this chapter. I
won't get to that today. But this is the gospel of substitution. You see, the gospel ministry
is the preaching of the substitutionary work of Christ. It's the preaching
of His person, who He is, and the accomplishment of redemption
as he was the substitute of his people and it says it here in
2nd Corinthians 5 20 and for he that is god the father hath
made him that is christ the son to be sin for us the for us is
substitution and who are the us there well though there are
those who are reconciled unto god and he says who knew no sin
that phrase uh... that phrase refers back to christ
not us We know sin. We're all too familiar with sin. But Christ knew no sin. He was
innocent. He was sinlessly perfect. And
He said He did all that that we might be made or become the
righteousness of God in Him. Now, you remember in the opening
of our service today, I read Romans 1, 16 through 17. And
Paul, you know, he opens up the book of Romans with really a
definition of the gospel. He starts off there with talking
about how the gospel is the gospel of God. In other words, this
good news, the source of this good news is not man. This is
not man's philosophy. It's not man's psychology. You
see, I'm not here, I'm not, listen to me, I'm not here to preach
a message that will meet your felt needs. Alright? And that's really what I think
that's mostly what modern church is about. I'm not here to do
that, all right? I'm here to give you the good
news. This is a gospel ministry, all right? I'm not a psychologist.
And in that sense, I'm not a counselor either. I'm a counselor in the
sense that I preach the Word of God, God's counsel. But I'm
not here to preach a message that will meet your felt needs,
all right? And I'm not even here to preach
a message that will encourage you if you're not looking to
Christ for salvation. In fact, if you're not looking
to Christ for all salvation, I don't want you to be encouraged.
I want you to walk out of here so discouraged that you'll do
nothing but seek the Lord. Seek Him in Christ. You understand
what I'm saying? I'm not saying I just want to
be a downer today. That's not the point, you see.
This is a gospel ministry. And I've got good news for sinners.
And all of you who are looking to Christ, I want you to be encouraged
to continue to look to Him. Continue to rest in Him. But
if you're not looking to Him, you don't need to be encouraged.
You ought to be the saddest person in the whole world. And I'm serious. But Paul wrote there, he said
it's the gospel of God. God is the source of. He said
it's a gospel that concerns a person. All right? It's not psychology. It's not economics. It's not
how to win friends and influence people. It's the gospel that
concerns a person. You read the whole first chapter
of Romans. You'll see what I'm saying is true. And that person
is the God-man. The Lord Jesus Christ. God in
human flesh. Remember there He says in Romans
chapter 1, He was made of the seed of David according to the
flesh. That's Christ's sinless humanity. Created for him in the womb of
the Virgin the Virgin Mary unto us a son a child is born That's
his humanity. He's a he's every bit human in
every way except without sin he had no sin and knew no sin
and then he was made of the seed of David according to the flesh
and he was Declared to be the Son of God. He wasn't made to
be the Son of God. He's always been the Son of God
and He's the Alpha and the Omega, that's His deity. He was declared
to be the Son of God in power by His resurrection from the
dead. In other words, His resurrection from the dead was a declaration
that He is God in human flesh. So it's a gospel that concerns
a person. All right, now the two verses that I read in the
opening of the service, Romans 1, 16 and 17, and I'll tell you
what, when I was, as a lost person, sitting in the pews where you're
all sitting now, I mean, verses like this used to hit me right
between the eyes. All right? And it really, the
Lord providentially, I didn't know it at the time, I thought
it was good old Bill doing all this, but it wasn't me. It was
the Lord all the time working to bring me providentially under
the preaching of the gospel. And verses like this used to
hit me and I couldn't let go of them. But listen to this,
Romans 1, 16, 17, Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. For it, the gospel, is the power
of God unto salvation." Now, did you hear that? The gospel
is the power... You know, somebody will criticize
a lot of times. I've heard this in the past.
I haven't heard it about here lately, but I've heard this in
the past. Somebody would criticize Brother Mahan or other gospel
preachers. All he does is preach the gospel. Well, that's a compliment. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. Now we know that's the gospel
empowered by the Holy Spirit. Isn't that right? Because it
says the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to whom?
To everybody? It doesn't say that. It says
to everyone that believeth. Now what does that mean? That
means who believes the gospel. And that means they have the
gift of faith. Faith is the gift of God. Now, the good news. Is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth? He says, to the Jew first and
the Greek also. Now, he made that statement because
that was such an issue back then. You don't have to become a Jew
to be saved. You just have to look to Christ.
That's what the scripture says. You have to rest in Him for all
salvation, all forgiveness, all righteousness, eternal life and
glory. You don't have to become a Jew.
You don't have to be circumcised in the flesh to be saved. Just
look to Christ. Alright? But then in verse 17
he makes this statement, for therein, that means in there,
that's what that means, in that gospel is the righteousness of
God revealed from faith to faith, from faith, that is from the
faith, from the preaching of the gospel to faith, that is
to the gift of faith within you to believe it, to lay hold of
it, to reach out and grab it spiritually and say this is mine,
this is what I believe, this is my hope, in Christ. So from faith to faith, for it
is written, the justified, those who are declared righteous, those
who are not guilty, those who are not condemned, they live
their lives by faith. By what? By looking to Christ.
All right? So therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. We'll look at verse 21 of 2 Corinthians
5 again. He says, For he hath made him
to be sin for us, Christ who knew no sin, that we might be
made or become the righteousness of God in him. Christ was made
sin that we, we who believe, might become the righteousness
of God in him. In other words, we have been
made the righteousness of God in him. Now that righteousness
of God, look back at verse 10 of 2 Corinthians 5. Last time
we talked about the judgment seat of Christ, that was last
Sunday morning. And the message there is very plain. We are sinners
and if God gave any of us, the best of us or the worst of us
and everybody in between, what we have earned or deserved, what
would it be? It would be eternal condemnation
and death. And that based on our best works,
based on our best works, we cannot be made righteous. Based on our
best works, we cannot atone for our sins. We cannot wipe away,
wash away, pay for our sins by our best work. The worst act
of suffering we've ever gone through, the best act that we've
ever performed will not wash away our sins. It's not by works. Man at his best state, altogether
vanity. So our only hope now, and at
the judgment, And in eternity is to be found in Christ. That's
what verse 10 means. We must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things
done in his body according to that he hath done whether it
be good or bad. That's not talking about what our works earn for
us. It's talking about what our works
say about us. Understand that this is the judgment
not only of our persons, but of our works am I a sinner? Saved by the grace of God am
I standing before God in Christ and do my works? Evidence my
faith in and love for and trust in him. That's what that's talking
about It's not talking about what your works do for you or
earn for you In other words, if you stand before God at judgment
in Christ, you will be declared before the whole universe that
your righteous and your works were to the praise of the glory
of His grace, the fruit of grace. If you stand before God without
Christ, it will be declared before the whole universe that you're
condemned and your works, no matter how they appeared to men,
were good. Think about Matthew 7, 21 through 23. Lord, Lord,
haven't we prophesied in your name? Done many wonderful works,
cast out demons. He said, depart from me ye that
work iniquity. I never knew you. You see, those
things don't make a sinner righteous before God. And nothing that
we do can make a sinner righteous before God. If you know that
and you believe that, that's why the gospel is such good news
to you. I have the righteousness of God
in Him, in Christ. He is my righteousness. That's
what that means. So in other words, our only hope
now, our only hope at the judgment and in eternity is to be found
in Christ. And Paul expressed that in Philippians
chapter 3 and verse 9. He said that I may know Him and
be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness which is of
the law, but that which is through the faith of Jesus Christ, the
righteousness which is of God by faith. Isn't that good news? That's good news. Well, look
at verse 11. He says, knowing therefore the
terror of the Lord, we persuade men, Now, that terror, it can
be looked at several ways. Some say, well, that's just the
fear of God, and that's okay, if you understand that. You say,
why does the King James Version translate it terror? Well, I
believe that's a good word for it. What is that terror? Well, it's simply this. It's the reality of standing
before a holy God at the judgment and to be found without Christ.
Thinking. Thinking you're saved. Thinking
you're okay. But finding out that you're not. What a terror that would be.
Think about that. I mentioned Matthew 7, 21. Think
about those fellows. They appeared before Christ at
the judgment fully expecting to hear Him say, Well done, thou
good and faithful servant. And what did He say? Depart from
Me, ye that work iniquity. I never knew you. I never had
an intimate relationship with you, a saving relationship. Could you imagine how much terror
filled their hearts? Some say, well, it's in the realm
of fear of reverence and respect. Well, that's okay too. That's
okay, too. I know. Listen, I know that God
will not save me or you or anybody outside these walls apart from
His grace in Christ. Do you believe that? I believe
there's only one way of salvation. One way! And that's the way of
Christ. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. People
try to get around that. They try to soft-sell it, soft-soap
it. It won't work. I know the terror
of the Lord. I haven't experienced the terror
of the Lord. Christ experienced that for me when He went under
the wrath of God as my substitute and took away that terror, that
legal fear. That's gone. Now I have a reverence
and a respect for God. But I know this, that there's
coming a day in which the Lord will judge this world in righteousness
by that man whom he hath ordained or appointed, in that he hath
given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from
the dead. It's Christ and Christ alone. But we who are in Christ,
we who know him also know that this terror, was what He suffered
on the cross when He was made sin. And He said, My God, My
God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Because He was forsaken, I won't
be, because I'm in Him. He's all my salvation. I remember
a preacher called another preacher, a friend of mine, And they were
arguing over some point of doctrine that mainly had to do with concocted
definitions of men rather than the word of God. And the preacher
told the friend of mine, he said, now I want you to know before
we settle this issue, if it ever gets settled, he said that one
of us is going to burn in hell forever over this. When I heard
that, I thought, well, you idiot, you know. And my friend said
this to him. He said, well, he said, I'll
tell you what. He said, if I burn in hell, I'll be the first person
in the history of the human race who will burn in hell for looking
to Christ. You see, that just doesn't happen,
friend. Nobody burns in hell for looking
to Christ, the true Christ of this book for salvation. He took
our punishment unto Himself for our sins charged to Him. And we have His righteousness,
we who believe, have His righteousness charged to us so that we stand
now and at judgment and forever as He is. We read that in 1 John
chapter 4 and verse 17. As He is, so are we now in this
world. Now knowing all that, is this
good news? The good news. This is a gospel
ministry. Let me give you these things. First of all, look back
at verse 11. First of all, look at the gospel
persuasion. The gospel persuasion. He says,
knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men,
but we're made manifest unto God, and I trust also are made
manifest in your consciences. That's the gospel persuasion.
We persuade men. Now I mentioned this last week.
Paul knew that he didn't have the power to change people's
hearts. He knew that salvation and a
sinner coming to conviction and faith was not a matter of presenting
human arguments and debates. He knew that. And yet he says
it is the nature of a gospel ministry for God's preachers
to try to persuade people. And that's what I'm doing right
now. I'm trying to persuade you. I can't make you believe it.
I can't make you repent. I can't even do it for myself.
I can't, listen, I can't talk you into it. I can't debate and
argue you into it. But I'm going to do my dead level
best to persuade you that Christ is your only hope of salvation. Now some will believe and some
will believe not. I have no power either way. All
I can do is tell you. Tell you the good news. That's
what the gospel ministry is all about. And this persuasion, now
let me tell you this. This persuasion is just simply
preaching the good news. It's not trying to use man's
weapons of merchandise or man's means or man's methods to get
people down an aisle or to get them into church. See, that's
not the persuasion. It's not tugging on your emotional
heart strings. Listen, there's nothing wrong
with getting emotional. over these issues of truth, of
sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment, of salvation. Nothing
wrong with that. But listen, this persuasion is
not an emotional overhaul for you. I mean, I could stand down
here and I could plead with you and we could sing just as I am,
but that is not the gospel persuasion. The gospel persuasion is what
I'm doing right now. Preaching Christ. Telling you
who He is and what He did and why He did it, where He is now.
Telling you of the God-man who is able to save sinners. To tell
you about your sin and my sin. You see, it's not just pointing
out your sins, I'm telling you about me too. It's a persuasion
that simply is a beseeching. You know, over there in verse
20. Look at verse 20. of 2 Corinthians
5. He says, now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ. In other words, we're not here
to preach ourselves or to represent ourselves or to present ourselves.
We're here as representatives of Christ, preaching His Word.
Our authority is His Word, not our word, not our credentials.
He said, for Christ, as though God did beseech you. That's beg
you. Now God doesn't beg. I mean,
we're not to present God as some kind of a beggar. But what he's
saying is here, we're pleading. In this sense, we pray you in
Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God. Now how are you going
to do that? Come to Christ. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's how a sinner is reconciled to God. You see, before you come
to Christ, you know what the Bible says you are? An enemy
of God. You may be religious. You may
be a church member. You may have been baptized a
thousand times. But until you come to Christ
for salvation, for forgiveness, for life, for righteousness,
the Bible says you're an enemy of God. you may be doing your
dead level best to work your way into God's favor and to please
Him you may pray until your pant legs on your knees are worn out
but until you come to Christ and believe in Him and rest in
Him for all salvation you're an enemy of God and I'm pleading
with you stop it that's right and I know that you're not going
to stop it except the Spirit of God come in and stop you in
your tracks like he did Paul on the Damascus Road. But I'm
still pleading. I'm still trying to persuade
you. Be ye reconciled to God in Christ. And look here, he said, that's
the gospel ministry. It's just simply preaching Christ
and Him crucified. All these other things, you can
throw them to the side. They don't work. They get people's
minds off of Christ. But look here, he says, we persuade
men, but we are made manifest unto God. That word manifest
means appear, how we appear, unto God. In other words, how
God sees us. And what Paul is saying here
is this, he said, as far as my ministry is concerned, as far
as the ministry and the message that I preach, I'm going to leave
the judgment to God alone. Now, Paul had been sharply criticized. because he was a renegade in
the eyes of popular religion. And he didn't speak a politically
correct gospel. And you know what a politically
correct gospel is, don't you? It's a false gospel. It's a gospel
that doesn't offend anybody. First of all, that's one thing
you learn in seminary. Learn how not to offend. All
right? And then it's a gospel that doesn't
present itself as the one only narrow way. That's very offensive
to people. You mean you think you're saved
and everybody else is lost? No, I didn't say that. But I
believe the gospel I preach is the one and only way of salvation. I've heard preachers back up
on that. They'd say things like, well, I believe that people come
different ways. but they come to the same God.
That's a lie. Does that offend you? I'm sorry.
I'm not politically correct today. There's one way to God. I've
heard preachers say this. You see how this thing filters
down. They'll say, well, I believe Christ is the only way, but there
are many ways to Christ. That's a lie too. In fact, it's
just a more deceptive lie. There's only one way to Christ.
And that's through His Word that identifies and distinguishes
him from all counterfeits. Are there counterfeit Christ?
Are there false Christ? You bet there are. I want to
know the true Christ. Only one way to Him. So Paul
had been criticized because he spoke like that. And people didn't
like it. It wasn't popular. It didn't
make people feel good about themselves. And so he says, well, they judged
my ministry. False preachers had crept into
the Corinthian church and they began to attack Paul and criticize
him. And he says, well, as far as
that's concerned, I'm leaving the judgment to God. God is my
witness. Well, that sounds kind of highfalutin,
doesn't it? Because every preacher says that. Well, how do you know the difference?
Well, what does he preach? What is the gospel? You see,
does he preach God's word or does he preach man's word? Look
over at 2 Corinthians chapter 4, across the page there. Look
at verse 1. Listen to this. He says, Therefore, seeing we
have this ministry, now that's the gospel ministry, we have
received mercy, we faint not, we don't quit. but have renounced
the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor
handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God." What do we preach? We preach the word. We don't
preach platitudes. We don't tell stories. We don't
fill our sermons with illustrations that, you know, somebody says,
well, I can't remember the Word of God, but I can remember an
illustration. Well, that tells you something about yourself,
doesn't it? And it's not good. You know, I like a good illustration,
but it's like a window that lets light in. Now, don't go home
and build, don't go build a house with nothing but windows in it.
That's not good. You see what I'm saying? We preach
the Word of God. We preach verse by verse. We
preach the Scriptures. We interpret Scripture with Scripture.
And we leave the judgment to God. We're not men-pleasers.
But we seek to honor Christ and please Him in the truth. We're
not trying to get a following for ourselves. Look at verse
5 of 2 Corinthians 4. Paul writes, he said, for we
preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves,
your servants for Jesus' sake. I'm not preaching myself. I don't
want you to follow me. There may be some, you know,
as you stay in a church as a pastor for so long, there may be some
people who do follow you, but I don't want you to. I want you
to follow Christ. This church was dividing over
preachers. Don't you dare divide over preachers. I'm talking about
gospel preachers now. You divide over false preachers,
get away from them. Mark them which cause division
contrary to the doctrine. But don't you divide over preachers,
your salvation's not in a man, it's in Christ. Paul said that,
look over 1 Corinthians 1, 1 Corinthians chapter 1. They were dividing
over preachers. And listen, there's nothing wrong
with a congregation loving and supporting and respecting their
preacher, their pastor, the one who labors in the world. In fact,
there's something wrong with a congregation who does that,
who does not do that. The Bible teaches that. But don't
follow him. You follow Christ. And if there's
anything to him, he'll tell you that. Look here, he says it in
verse 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. He said, It hath been declared
unto me of you, my brethren, by them of which are the house
of Chloe, that there are contentions, that's divisions, among you.
Now, what are the divisions? He says, Well, now this I say,
that every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos,
and I of Cephas, that's Peter's Greek name, and I of Christ.
In other words, you were dividing over preachers, and then some
say, Well, I don't follow any preacher, I follow Christ. The
indication here is that even those were self-righteous in
the way they were saying it. But the thing about it is, I
want you to notice something about all three men that are stated
here. There's Paul, there's Apollos,
and there's Peter. You know what they all have in
common? They all preach the gospel. So we're talking about a division
here over gospel preachers. Now the problem is not the preacher
here. The problem is the people. The responsibility here is on
you, not me. I'm telling you not to divide
over me. Now, if you divide over me, the
problem is you, not me. I'm telling you not to follow
me. Follow Christ. You see what I'm saying? These
were all three true preachers. Paul and Apollos and Peter. So
here's what Paul says, look at verse 13. He said, is Christ
divided? The body of Christ is not divided.
He's the head, we're the body. Was Paul crucified for you? If
you're going to follow Paul, then you'd have to say he's your
savior. Well, was Paul crucified for you? No. Or were you baptized
in the name of Paul? You see what he's saying? That's
the gospel ministry. And he said, I'm going to leave
that judgment to God. I preach the truth. You go by
what the man preaches. Go back to 2 Corinthians 5. And
look here in verse 11. He says, knowing therefore the
terror of the Lord, we persuade men, but we're made manifest
unto God, and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. The gospel ministry is aimed
at the conscience. The gospel ministry is aimed
at the heart. What is the heart? It's the mind,
the affections, the will, the inner man. In other words, I'm
not preaching a message that is just meant to reform you outwardly. I'm not just trying to clean
the outside of the cup by preaching this message. It's aimed at the
heart. It's aimed at the conscience.
The conscience is the seat of the mind's judgment. It's like
the courtroom in your mind. That's what the conscience is.
It's that by which you either excuse or accuse yourself and
others based on. In your conscience, you have
a sense of right and wrong. Every person is born with a conscience.
Romans chapter 1 and 2 teaches that. Now there are people who spend
their lives trying to squelch that conscience and some even
are successful because God lets them go that far and they're
called those of a reprobate mind, a mind void of conscience. The
legal courts call them insane, say they don't know the difference
between right and wrong. But here's the thing, the natural
man doesn't know the difference between right and wrong in a
spiritual realm until God teaches him. We don't. But there's the
conscience. And this is where the gospel
ministry, look across the page 2 Corinthians chapter 3 that
brother Ron read. Listen to this. He says here in verse 1. 2 Corinthians 3. Do we begin again to commend
ourselves or need we as some others epistles or letters of
commendation? Now what Paul is saying is the
only commendation I need to the people of God is the fact that
I preach Christ. I don't need a letter accompanying
me from some authoritative, well-respected group, committee, or preacher. Do I preach Christ? Do I point
you to Christ for all salvation, for all forgiveness, for all
righteousness, for all eternal life and glory? Or do I point
you somewhere else? You see? And so he says in verse
2, he says, you are our letter written in our hearts, known
and read of all men. He's talking about people who
have been brought to faith in Christ here. They've been born
again by the Spirit. He says in verse 3, for as much
as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ,
the letter of Christ, a walking, talking letter, that's what you
are, if you're looking to Christ. Now again, if you're looking
somewhere else, this doesn't include you. He says, "...ministered
by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living
God." The Holy Spirit has done a work in your heart. How do
you know that? How do you know the Spirit of
God has done a work in your heart? You know, I keep saying it, and
it sounds so simple, because it is. Where are you looking
for salvation? Where is your hope of forgiveness? Where is your hope of righteousness?
Where is your hope of forgiveness and eternal life and glory? Is
it in Christ and Him alone? Christ and Him crucified and
buried and risen again? Well, that's the evidence that
the Holy Spirit has done a work in your heart. The Spirit of
the Living God. And it's not in tables of stone.
Now, you know what that's referring to. That's the Ten Commandments.
But it's not just the Ten Commandments alone. It's that whole old covenant. 1,500 years from Mount Sinai
to Mount Calvary, that old covenant was in effect. And the center
of it was the Ten Commandments, and that's why he says, written
in tables of stone. In other words, this is not rules
and regulations and ceremonies and outward reformations. This
is written in fleshy tables of the heart. This is on your heart. This is the new covenant. This
is the gospel ministry. This is why it's so powerful.
It's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. It's
written on the heart. You have a God-given desire to
feed upon the Word of God and to hear Christ preached and lifted
up. to worship in spirit and in truth
and he says in verse four in such trust have we through Christ
to God this is the work of God through Christ this is not the
preacher's work we preach the gospel we're just the signpost
we point you where the voice as John said crying in the wilderness
and he says in verse five not that we are sufficient of ourselves
to think anything as of ourselves in other words this is not my
work I never forget, I think it was Tim James, he was talking
about an old preacher who was preaching the gospel up in one
of the major cities, I don't know, New York or Chicago or
somewhere, and after he finished the message, and he was walking,
the hotel that he was staying in was close to the church and
he was walking back to his hotel room that night and a drunk staggered
out of the alley and was going to ask him for money and he looked
up and he said, I know you and the preacher said, well, you
do? He said, well, I don't know you. He said, well, you're a
preacher, aren't you? And the preacher said, yeah, I preach
the gospel over here. He said, you're the one that saved me.
And the preacher said, well, you look about like some of my
work. Well, that's what Paul said.
This is not my work. If you're a saved sinner, you're
not my work. You're not Brother Mahan's work.
You're God's work. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8,
He says, For by grace are you saved through faith, that not
of yourselves is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man
should boast. For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto, not because of, unto good works, which God
hath before ordained that we should walk in them. So He says
our sufficiency is of God. Look at verse 6, 2 Corinthians
3, who also hath made us able ministers of the new covenant,
the new testament. Not the old, not of the letter.
We don't preach the law. We preach Christ. But of the
spirit. For the letter killeth, the law
condemns. You know what the law says? You're
guilty and you deserve to die. That's what the law says. But
the Spirit giveth life. Now how does the Spirit give
life? Through Christ. This body is dead because of
sin. The Spirit is life through Christ, through righteousness.
And who is that? That's Christ. He's our righteousness. It's His obedience unto death.
He says, verse 7, but if the ministration of death written
and engraved in stones was glorious, and it had a glory. I mean, you
read those stories in the Old Testament of Israel and Moses
and go on through. I mean, it's impressive, isn't
it? It had a glory to it. Think about that. Think about
the Mount Sinai. Think about the Red Sea. Think
about their wanderings in the wilderness. Think about their
history as far as God's dealing with them. I mean, it's impressive.
It had a glory. And it was glorious, so that
the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face
of Moses. Think about Moses coming down
out of Mount Sinai. There was a physical light, effulgence,
shining from his face. And he says, for the glory of
his countenance, which glory was... Now listen, read this
line, don't leave this out. Which glory was to what? Be done
away. It's gone! Now don't try to bring
it back again. It's gone. See, that's no part
of the gospel ministry today. It's gone. What are you looking
for? What am I looking for? See? Are
you looking for Moses coming down out of the mount? Well,
they saw it and it didn't do them any good. He says that later
on. It didn't do them any good. He
says in verse 8, How shall not the ministration of the Spirit
be rather glorious? The ministration of the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit. I know that the Spirit there
is not capitalized, but I believe it should be. The Spirit of God
bringing a sinner in new birth, new life, to faith in Christ. Do you know that is a more glorious
thing in God's assessment Then Moses coming down out of Sinai
with that shine on his face that they couldn't even look at, it
was so bright. And people say, well, well, if I could just see
Moses coming down out of the mountain. Well, let me tell you something,
that would do you absolutely no good. But if you could just
look to Christ, that's everything. If you could just repent of your
dead works and idolatry and just rest in Christ and go on. He
says in verse 9, he says, for if the ministration of condemnation,
that's the law, be glory, much more does the ministration of
righteousness exceed in glory. You see, here's the thing about
it. The law cannot make you righteous before God, but Christ can. We're made the righteousness
of God in Him. That's a whole lot more glorious
than the law. That's right. I see these fellas,
you know, on TV, you know, they'll try to reconstruct the tabernacle
and reconstruct the worship of the tabernacle. We have little
models of the tabernacle we use for teaching, but what does everything
in that tabernacle point to? It points to Christ. We're not
trying to reinstitute the old covenant. It had a glory. But
it couldn't make you righteous, couldn't make anybody under it
righteous. My friend Christ has made His people righteous before
God. He was made sin. We who are in
Him are made the righteousness of God in Him. That's a lot more
glorious than that law. In verse 10, for even that which
was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of
the glory that exceleth. That's the gospel persuasion.
You want to know that glory that exceleth? That exceeding glory? Look to Christ for all salvation. There's the glory of it. And
He's the fullness of the glory of it. He's the fullness of the
Godhead bodily, and you're complete in Him.