We are looking in 2 Corinthians
3, and we were talking last week about the ministration of death,
which of course is speaking about the giving of the law. Now the law is good. Everything
the Lord gave to men is good. The law is a good thing. Nothing
wrong with the law. The problem with the law is man's
inability to keep it. I mean, that's what the problem
is. Knowing the law will not help us. Having the law in front
of us will not bind us to it. In fact, it will stir us up even
unto a recognition of what we are by nature. Paul said, I was
alive without the law once. He said, I looked at the law
every day, but I did not know what it meant. But he said, when
the law came, he said, sin revived and I died. He said, when I came
to the place where I saw what the law was, it came full force
into my mind what these things were, he said, I looked at myself
and I said, oh, woe is me, I can't keep the law. I'm doomed. See, a man, a lot of people think,
oh, well, if you've got ten commandments and you keep them, then everything
will be all right. I mean, wouldn't you say that
most people kind of think that? Well, you know, we're trying
to keep the Ten Commandments. I mean, we're going along and
God's going to be pleased that we're trying to keep the Ten
Commandments. No, God's not pleased that you're trying to keep the
Ten Commandments. God's pleased with one thing, and that's perfect
righteousness. And it can't be found in men.
The only place that that can and is found is in Christ. And
so the only righteousness that is acceptable before Almighty
God is perfect righteousness. And the law has been sent to
us to show us that we are not perfectly righteous. We are not
even close. We can't even make it out of
the starting gate. He said, Thou shalt have no other
gods before my face. And yet we seek out many things. You know, we can't get past the
first table. Some people call those the tables
of the commandments, you know, the ones that have to do with
God. The Lord did divide the law in
the sense that He said the first commandment is, Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all
thy mind. And He said the second is like
unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And most
people want to kind of skip over the first one, don't they? And
they just want to jump right in to, well, you know, we love
everybody. Oh, everybody loves everybody,
don't they? I mean, if you ask people, do you love everybody?
Oh, yeah, I love everybody. Oh, I love everybody. Well, when
somebody tells you they love everybody, you know what? They don't love anybody. Because love in particular, I
mean, when you look in the Scripture, you will find out that when the
Lord talks about love, He is talking about something specific,
not general. He said, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. You know, the Lord makes a difference.
Just like you pointed out there in the land, the Lord made a
difference between the people of God and the Egyptians. He
says, I'm going to make a difference. I'm going to demonstrate something
to you. He said, I don't love the Egyptians. He says, I love the Hebrews.
And He says, I'm going to make it plain in this thing that I
do. The ministration of death written
and engraven in stones was glorious. It was glorious. So that the
children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of
Moses for the glory of his countenance. When Moses came down off of that
mountain, he had to have a veil on his face because the children
of Israel couldn't look on him because the glory, it was so
too great. His face was shining and they
couldn't look on him. And it was glorious, but listen
to what it said, which glory was to be done away. You see, the glory of the Lord
was temporary. It was not meant to be glorious
forever. It is temporary. It was to be
done away. But there is something that is
not to be done away. How shall not the ministration
of the Spirit be rather glorious?" Now, if the ministration of death,
he said, was glorious, how much more is the ministration of the
Spirit, which is the giver of life, whereas the law ministered
death, the Spirit ministered life. He said if the law had
glory, how much more glory is there in that which the Spirit
does, for if the ministration of condemnation be glory. Much
more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
That work of the Spirit of God is much more glorious. For even
that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect
by reason of the glory that excelleth." Now, he is just simply saying,
compared to the ministration of the Spirit, the Lord does
not have any glory. I mean, if you want to talk about
the glory of God, don't talk about the law, talk about the
work of Christ. I mean, that's where the glory
of God is. When Moses said to the Lord,
Lord, show me that glory, what did he say? He didn't say, I'll give the
law, did he? He said, I'm going to show mercy to whom I will
show mercy. He said, that's my glory. He
said that I'm a sovereign God and I delight in showing mercy
to the sons of men. That's the glory of God. The
ministration of the law had glory, but it was a temporary thing.
It was given for a temporary purpose. But the ministration
of God's mercy is that which excelleth. So much so that why
would we spend our time talking about the law? That's what Paul
said. For if that which is done away
was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious."
Now when we say the law was done away, do we mean that the Lord
tore up ten commandments and threw them away? No, they're
as true now as they've ever been. But they're still exactly what
they are, a ministration of death, because all that they can do
is show us that we are sinners. Seeing then that we have such
hope. Now what is our hope? Our hope
is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
That's what our hope is. He says, seeing we have such
hope, let's talk plainly. Now a lot of people don't want
to talk plainly about this because they don't want people to be
out from under the law, do they? They want to keep saying, well,
you're still under the law. Well, if we're still under the
law, brethren, we're still under the sentence of death. Now, a
man who is in Christ is not under the law. Now, does that mean
he doesn't have law? No. According to what Paul said,
he said, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Spirit, but after
the Lord, after the law of love. He said for the law of love,
well, let me read it. I can't, it's blanked out in
my mind here. One of my favorite passages,
Romans 8. It says, There is therefore now
no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law
of sin and death. Now we're not against the law
of Moses, we're not against it, but it can't help us. It can't
minister life to us. And Paul said it's to be done
away. Let's have great plainness of speech. 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. There
is no clarity in what Moses brought, but many questions. I mean, this
was a glorious thing, but it's that which clouded the view of
the children of Israel, did it not? I mean, that's what the
Lord said. He said this law brought a veil with it. Because He said even in the present
time, those to whom the law will give them, the nation of Israel,
He said even at the present time that veil is upon their heart. Now, who made that veil? The
Lord made the veil. Why did He make the veil? So
they couldn't see. I mean, isn't that it? I mean, He caused them not to
be able to see, did He not? What did He do it for? Did He
do it just because He delighted in them not being able to see?
No, it was because He would show the glory of the redemption of
Christ in contrast to it. And He said, you cannot inherit
the kingdom of God through natural birth. You cannot inherit the
kingdom of God through law keeping. It can't be done. But you will
inherit the kingdom of God through the ministration of the Spirit
and the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Seeing
then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech.
We don't want anybody to misunderstand this. We don't want anybody to
go out thinking that you're going to keep the law and somehow make
God happy. It's not going to happen. Not as Moses, which put his veil
over his face, that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly
to the end that was to be abolished. They could not even understand
it. They could not see it. But their minds were blinded.
For until this day remained the same veil untaken away in the
reading of the Old Testament. You can go to any synagogue today,
and they are still. going through the same thing.
They still believe the same thing, do they not? They think that
they are going to please God by the activity of their flesh.
It can't be done. 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."
There is clarity of vision in seeing what it is that God would
do with men when we look at Christ. That's the only place you can
see it. You can't see it in the law, but you can see it in Christ. But 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. That
is when they are turned to the Lord. Now some consider that
that's speaking about some great revival or something that's going
to take place in the future, and it may be. I don't know about
that. I'm not dogmatic about all those things because I don't
know. But I think more likely what it has reference to is just
the fact that even in the present time, though a man be a Jew,
when the Lord is pleased to take that veil away, then they can
see. And until such time as that occurs, they won't be able to
see whether they're a Jew or a Gentile. But he's specifically
speaking about the law of Moses and that sort of thing, so that's
the application. Nevertheless, when it shall turn
to the Lord, or when they shall be turned to the Lord, then that
veil shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that Spirit,
and where the Spirit of the Lord is, Liberty. Now when Moses came down from
the mountain and he said, thou shalt not do this, and thou shalt
do this, and this and the other, do you think the people said,
oh man, this is great? No. Because you see, when the
reality of what he was saying set in to them, they said, oh,
we've got a heavy burden to bear here. There's no liberty in the
law. I mean, the law is not designed
to give men liberty. The law is designed to bind men
up. That's what it is. It's to put
them in a box. It's to say, do this. I mean,
you know, when you've got little kids, you don't just turn them
loose and say, just go do whatever you want to do. I remember when
I was a kid, the one thing that we always looked forward to was
when it came time to go outside and play. I mean, that made going
to school worthwhile, because you were cooped up in this classroom
until such time as you were set free and you could run out the
door. And the teacher wouldn't say, now don't run, because you
could run. You was at liberty. Same way
when I was a kid going to church. I mean, I was sitting in there
and the one thing that I was waiting on was for him to say
the last prayer because, buddy, I was going to be out the door.
And I knew I was free then. I had to sit still and do all
this stuff until such time as I could go. And that's exactly
what it is. You see, we are set at liberty,
a greater liberty than any kid has ever experienced. in being
set free at school or whatever. We are set free in Christ from
under the law, from under the burden of sin. It cannot condemn
us. We cannot be destroyed. We cannot
be turned away because in Christ we have liberty. We are free. You see, there is no law. The
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, meekness. And then what does He say? Against
such there is no law." You see, the fruit of the Spirit, that
which the Spirit of God works in God's people, there is no
law against that. That is the liberty of the sons
of God. We can love one another. We can
forgive one another. We can be kind to one another. That is freedom, dear brethren.
We are not under the law. We do not have to do something.
We are made to do something by the work of the Spirit. The Scripture
says He works within us both to will and to do of His good
pleasure. Now the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit
of the Lord is, there is liberty. The Lord gives His people liberty.
He does not try to bind them up. But we all, with open face,
Beholding is in a glass the glory of the Lord. Now remember with
open face, remember Moses, what did he have? He had a veil on
his face. So he is giving a contrast here. We are not looking at the law
and covering our faces up, but with open face. We have been
set free. We are not waiting for the axe
to fall, but we are waiting for the fruits of our redemption. But we all with open face, beholding
as in a glass, that is, in a mirror, the glory of the Lord. Now wait
a minute. He said we're looking in a mirror
and we're seeing the glory of the Lord. Well, when I look in
the mirror, I have to confess to you, I don't see much of the
glory of the Lord, but in the picture that he's saying here.
If we understand what it is that we have in Christ, It is fascinating
in comparison with that which has been done away. He said,
when we look at ourselves, what do we see? Christ. You see, when we look at ourselves,
we see Christ because we know Christ is our hope. He is our
expectation. When I look at myself in reality,
in the flesh, I say, man, there's no hope. But brethren, when I
behold my face in a glass, in this glass, which glass? The
glass of God's grace. The glass of God's mercy. When
I see myself in light of that. You see, when I see myself in
light of the law and I think of all the things I haven't done, I'm pretty depressed. When I
realize how far short of being what I should be that I am, what
I do, I hang my head because there is no liberty in that.
But dear brethren, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus. That is the liberty of the sons
of God when we behold ourselves as we are seen in the kingdom
of heaven, beholding our face in a glass, in a mirror. Do you
remember in Snow White They had a mirror, a mirror on the wall.
Who's the fairest of them all? And of course, you know, one
day came and she wasn't the fairest anymore. Well, brethren, that
day is never going to come because we are the fairest because our
righteousness is the righteousness of Christ. It's not our own. We're not looking at what the
law can bring us. All the law can do is condemn
us. But what Christ has done, We are changed into the same
image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Oh, you know, I'm still the same old person that I always was,
but in Christ. By holding my face in a glass,
when I look at this glory that exalteth, the glory of what I
could do, and I see that which Christ has done, then indeed
we are changed from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit
of the Lord. We are set free. What a glorious
place to stand as the sons of God, without Anything telling
us, well, you should do this, and you should do that, and you
should have done this, and you ought to have done that, all
of that might very well be true. I'm not telling you that you've
done everything you should do, but I'm telling you in light
of what Paul is saying right here, you are as if. You are. It's not as if, you are. Because
when you're looking in the right mirror, dear brethren, you're
seeing what you are in Christ. Now if you get over there and
you're trying to see your face in the mirror of the law, you're
going to be disappointed. When you get to looking at what
you think you should do and ought to do and all of that kind of
stuff, you're going to be depressed. But oh, by the grace of God,
when you see yourself as you are in Christ, you're forever
set free and we are rejoicing. in these things, and we speak
plainly. We're not trying to sneak up
on God's people. We want to tell them the truth.
Now, what's the truth? That we've been made free in
Christ. Now, do I worry that, you know, you hear this all the
time, oh, you've got to be careful telling people that because,
you know, people are just getting to thinking that they can just
do anything. Well, praise God we can just do anything in Christ. Now you see, what they don't
understand is that we're not talking about being set free
in the flesh because the law condemns the flesh. We're talking
about being set free in Christ. And if the Spirit of God works
in His people, dear brethren, are they not conformed to the
image of Christ? Are they not constrained by the
Spirit of God? Is that not the work of God? And is not our ultimate joy not
in what we see in ourselves, but what we see in Him? And that's
the place, dear brethren, that we point the people of God to.
Don't look at yourself through the glass of the law. Look at
yourself through the glass of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for
He is our Savior. And we come today to remember
that. Because we come today not to remember what we are by nature,
but we come to remember the Lord's death until He comes again. Because
in that, and that alone, is where our freedom lies. Our liberty
is that which Christ has performed for us.