2 Corinthians, and we're going
to be in chapter 3. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. I'm going to read that chapter.
We're going to begin reading in the last verse of chapter
2. It says, For we are not as many
which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of
God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ. 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 God. 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 reason 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 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. 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. 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."
Now Paul begins this chapter before speaking about the fact
that he was merely speaking the truth of God. It was not within
his mind and heart to corrupt the Word of God or in any way
to twist the things of God. And he didn't have any secrets
that He was holding out towards them. You know, some of the religions
of the world, they don't want you to know everything all up
front that they believe, because they want to get you in and they
want to get you kind of indoctrinated and used to things before they
really spring some of the really weird stuff on you. Well, there
was not any weird stuff in the Gospel of Christ. It is what
it is. And Paul said, we are preaching
the truth of God to you just like it is. There is nothing
to hide and we do not have any secret things that we are holding
back. And we are not trying to get
you into something. Now you know, religion tries
to get people in it. Isn't that true? I mean, just
any religious organization that you know of, they've got a membership
drive going on. I mean, they're trying to get
folks in. And, of course, one of the reasons they're trying
to get folks in is to get the support to be able to get more
folks in. And so they can get more folks
in. They need some more money, so they need more folks to provide
more money to get more folks in. And that's just kind of the
way it goes. Now certainly, we are not opposed to folks coming
in. The Lord added to the church
daily such as should be saved as we read in the book of Acts,
but it was the Lord doing the work. It was the Lord who was
the one bringing them in. It was not the result of the
apostles going out on a membership drive trying to sign people up.
It was merely the preaching of the gospel and the Lord causing
men to hear it and to rejoice in it. And so he says, beginning
here, do we begin again to commend ourselves? He says, are we patting
ourselves on the back? Is that our purpose for coming
to you to build us up in your eyes? I mean, do we want you
to think highly of us? Or need we as some others epistles
of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? Now,
you remember when the Apostle Paul first was The Lord brought him out of darkness
and he came among the disciples and he had to have somebody to
vouch for him, didn't he? Because they said, well who is
this guy? And I believe it was Was it Simeon? I don't remember
the guy's name. Anyway, the Lord appeared to
him and said, you know, Paul is alright and you can receive
him. Well, he vouched for Paul. And
so it was common practice, and even in the present time is in
certain circles, to give letters of commendation. Now, in the
church that I grew up in, if somebody was moving to another
city or something, and they were a member of the church, they
would oftentimes ask for what's called a letter to be sent to
another church. And of course the idea behind
that was that the church they came from was commending them
to the church they were going to. And of course nowadays that's
just devolved into just a mere formality of changing membership
from one place to the other, but at one time there was actually
attached to that a testimony to the character of the person
so that he wasn't just some fly-by-night guy that claimed to be something
that he wasn't. And so Paul says, we didn't ask
for letters of commendation from you and we didn't bring any letters
of commendation to you. He said, because we didn't need
to. Because he said, you're our letter. He said, we've preached
the gospel among you. And he said, ye are our epistle
written in our hearts, known and read of all men. He said,
the love that we have for you is obvious. He said, we don't
need to be commended to you, and we don't need you to commend
us. But He says, you know the things that we have taught you,
and you know these things to be true, and these things have
been manifest for as much as you are manifestly declared to
be the epistle of Christ ministered by us. The Lord brought you out
of darkness and into the light through the operation of the
ministry of the Word of God that He had sent us to do. He said,
You are our epistle. It is written out. Not with ink,
not as one would write a letter, but with the Spirit of the living
God. Not in tables of stone, but in
fleshy tables of the heart. These are true things. He said,
God has wrought a work in you. The Lord has brought you into
the knowledge of Christ. He said that evidence is in your
midst and it can't be overturned. It's much better than something
that could be written out. You know, a lot of people think
that it's a big deal to go around and talk about being a Christian. I mean, that's supposedly the
big thing is you go out and you tell everybody you're a Christian.
Well, there's certainly nothing wrong with testifying to the
gospel of Christ. But we're not sent out to tell
folks what we are. By the grace of God, hopefully
as we go forth into the world, it will be manifest what we are.
And in reality it will, will it not? Whether we like it or
whether we don't. I mean, it is going to be seen
what we are. And Paul said that's what we
are. He said we are what we are by
the grace of God. And so we don't need someone
to pat us on the back or to say, well, this guy here, he's a faithful
preacher of the Word of God. He said it's manifest. It's evident.
We're not trying to build something up here. And such trust have
we through Christ to God. Not that we are sufficient of
ourselves to think anything is of ourselves, but our sufficiency
is of God. He said this isn't something
that we thought up or we're bragging and boasting. He said our sufficiency
is not of ourselves. We didn't bring this to pass
through some power we had. Now, you know, a lot of times
you get the impression, or at least I do, when I hear some
of these false prophets talking about various things, that the
power is in them. I mean, old brother so-and-so
is coming to town and the Holy Ghost is going to come. Well,
dear brethren, nobody can bring the Holy Ghost with them. The Lord didn't give the Holy
Ghost to somebody and now they are going to bring Him whenever
they get ready. I mean, if the Spirit of God comes, He comes
because He wants to come. He comes because He'll come,
and He'll speak of one, and that will be Christ. He won't speak
of Himself. He won't make a boast of anything.
He won't tell you what's going to happen ahead of time. The
sick is going to be healed, and the blind is going to see, and
all of that kind of stuff. Now that might happen. It could
happen. I mean, if the Lord sees fit
to cause it to happen, it would happen. But you can't advertise
it ahead of time. How would you know? And so we're
not sufficient for these things. These are not things that we're
called upon to perform. We're not like dogs in a show. We're going to perform. Okay,
now it's time for Act 3. Old brother so-and-so is going
to get up and he's going to do his performance. No, that's not
what Paul said. We're not sufficient for these
things. To either think of ourselves,
our sufficiency is of God. If we do anything that's of any
value, it's going to be because of the mercy of God, the work
of God that's performed in us. That's what he said. Not that
we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything, but our sufficiency
is of God who has made us able ministers of the New Testament. Now if we preach the gospel,
if anybody preaches the gospel and it is useful, it will be
because God made it useful. It won't be because the man went
to a certain school. or he had certain training, or
he's got certain gifts of eloquence or whatever, that won't be the
reason. The Lord may use such things
according to the good pleasure of His will, but that's not the
reason for it. Paul says what the reason is.
He said, He hath made us able ministers of the New Testament. We're not ministers of the law,
are we? The Lord didn't send us to preach
the law. As glorious as the law is. And
we're not against the law. A lot of times people think we're
against the law. I'm not against the law of God.
The law of God is a righteous law. It's a perfect law. But the Lord didn't send us into
the world to preach the law. But he sent us into the world
to preach, we are able ministers of the New Testament. That is
the covenant of grace that has been set forth and manifested
in Jesus Christ. That is what we have been sent
to preach. And so if somebody else wants to preach something
else, that is their business. But Paul said, we are made able
ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the
Spirit, for the letter killeth. But the Spirit giveth life. Now in these next few verses,
Paul is going to show the contrast between being an able minister
of the New Testament and that which is of the letter. Now, some people have the notion that
you can learn how to be a Christian. There are books by the thousands
written that you can read. And I'm not saying you can't
read some of these things to profit, but understand what I
am saying here. You can't go get a book, any
book written by anybody, that can give you an instruction on
how to be a Christian. That's not how That knowledge
comes. That's not how that wisdom comes.
It doesn't come through the letter. It doesn't come through the operation
of men. But it comes as the Spirit of
God is pleased to apply the things of God to our hearts. Even the
Bible, as glorious and wonderful as this is, the Word of the living
God, the Bible as a letter book, that is, just going to the book
and reading the book, It cannot make you a Christian. It cannot
make you to be a follower of Christ. That is not how it works. Now, these things are probably
all Scriptures given by the inspiration of God, and it is profitable
for the children of God. It is useful. It is helpful.
It is beneficial. But we are not ministers of the
letter. We are not just interested in
you learning the Scriptures. You know, there are many false
prophets and false religions in the earth that can quote the
Bible backwards and forwards. And they can know the letter
of it. And that's impressive, is it not? I mean, when you come
across somebody and, buddy, he can just roll off the Scriptures
just right there, that's impressive, is it not? It's not any use whatsoever to
know what the Scripture says if you don't know what the Scripture
means. And the only way you can know
what the Scripture means is for the Spirit of God to open your
understanding to grasp it. Because all false religions are
built on the letter of truth. Paul said, we didn't come preaching
to you the letter of truth. Now, it's not that we despise
the letter of truth, but that's not the source of our knowledge. But rather, it is not of the
letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the
Spirit giveth life. The letter does not enable men
to do anything. That was what was wrong with
the law, was it not? Now, the law is a good document. The Ten
Commandments, usually when people think of the law, they think
of the Ten Commandments. The law is much more than the
Ten Commandments, but just for sake of argument, let's say we
have the Ten Commandments, and you paste it up on your wall,
and you look at it every day. Does that help you to keep the
law? Knowing the law. No. No. Every prisoner that's in
jail can tell you what the law says. He can get a book while
he's in there and read it. He can study up on it. He knows
what the law says, doesn't he? But what's his problem? He didn't
keep the law. That's what the problem is. And
the law couldn't help him. It couldn't deliver him. It couldn't
do anything for him. All the law could do was point
out what he did wrong. And so that's what Paul said.
He said, we're not ministers of the law. We're not ministers
of the letter. Because all the letter does is
kill. He said, we're ministers of the
Spirit. For if the ministration of death...
Now what's he talking about? He's talking about the giving
of the law, is he not? Now, a lot of people don't like
to face the facts of what Paul is saying here. Now, you've got
to have some understanding about what Paul is saying, because
he's certainly not casting aspersions on what the Lord gave to Moses,
is he? He's just showing that there
is a big contrast and a big difference between having the law Loving the law. Big difference
there. And that's what he's speaking
about here. He said, if the ministration of death... Now, when the Lord
gave Moses the Ten Commandments and the rest of the law on Mount
Sinai, that was spoken of as a ministration of death. Now,
how is that so? Well, what did Paul say? He said,
I had not known sin except by the law. He said, I was alive
without the law once. But he said, when the law came,
sin revived and I died. Why? Because the law kills. Because when you look at the
law, does it give you any hope? I mean, if the Lord said, you've
got to abide by these things or I'm going to kill you. What
hope would you have? I mean, if that was it, keep
the law. Well, a lot of people think they're
going to keep the law. Well, more power to you. But
I'm telling you, the law ministers death. It is administration of
death. Because that's what it was designed
to do. You can forget the notion that
the law has been given as a guideline for people to live by. Now it
is a good rule for people to live by. This is kind of a paradox,
is it not? I mean, what part of the law
can you disregard? What part of the law would you
want to disregard? Why would you want to disregard
it? But it cannot minister life to you. It can't help you in
any way other than to show you that you are condemned already. That's what it's designed to
do. And that's what it's for. And that's what Paul says. He's
not saying, you know, this is a terrible thing, but he's just
pointing out what it is because he's pointing out what the gospel
is. He says, if the ministration
of death written in engraving with stones was glorious, it
was glorious. Can you imagine what it must
have been like to have been there around Mount Sinai when those
clouds and smoke and fire and all that was just surrounding
that mountain day after day after day? And the people said, well,
Moses has done gone up there and he's burnt up. I mean, he's
dead. There ain't no way he's coming
back. I mean, this was the giving of
the law. It was the ministration of death.
It offered no hope. There was nothing. They didn't
say, oh, we know Moses is coming back. If it was glorious, it was glorious. Don't you ever think that the
giving of the law is not glorious? Don't you ever think that the
giving of the law is not a wonderful thing in what it is designed
to do? 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. Now, when
Moses came back down the mountain, remember what he did? He had
put a veil on his face, didn't he? Why? Because he had been
in the presence of the Lord who gave that law. And there was
such glory surrounding all of that that the children of Israel
couldn't even look at him. There was so much glory there.
Paul said, now think about this for a minute. 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."
He said it wasn't even the ultimate purpose. This was just a thing
that God gave in a, if you want to say in a sense, it was a temporary
manifestation. Although the law is not temporary,
but the giving of the law is temporary, it has fulfilled the
purpose of God. Behold that glory which was to
be done away." And then he gives the contrast. How shall not the
ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? Because what
we are preaching and what the giving of the gospel of Jesus
Christ is never to be done away with. This is the whole end. This was the ultimate end of
the giving of the law was to show the glory of Christ. See, it's impossible that a man
should behold the glory of Christ if he hasn't seen the glory of
the Law. Is it? How can a man worship
Christ if he doesn't know himself to be a sinner? See, people think,
well, I'll just choose to follow Christ if I get ready. No, you
won't. Men can't choose to follow Christ because they won't choose
to follow Christ. Now they may choose to tell everybody
they are a Christian. They may adopt the Christian
religion. But you see, until a man is brought
face to face with the glory of the law and sees himself to be
a sinner before Almighty God, he will never seek the Lord. But by the grace of God, as the
law does its killing work, And the ministration of that work
is glorious. How much more glorious is it
when the grace of Christ is revealed? How much greater is that ministration
of the Spirit? How shall not the ministration
of the Spirit be rather glorious or more glorious? For if the
ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the
ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. Now did not
the Jews think that whenever they were preaching and teaching
the law, and they had the letter of the law, that this was righteousness?
Some people talk about being righteous by the law. But there
is only one man who has ever demonstrated righteousness by
the law. Jesus Christ. Because He fulfilled
the law, did He not? In every jot and tittle. He didn't
miss one little part of it. He completely fulfilled it. He
is perfectly righteous before the Lord. Who shall enter into
the hill of the Lord? He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart. Now does that give you any hope? When the Lord says, you can come
into My presence if you have clean hands and a pure heart.
Now the man who thinks he's a law keeper, he says, oh boy, I'm
going to go see the Lord. But the man who's been convinced
of his sin by the ministration of the glory of the law, which
is a ministration of death, he says, oh, woe is me, I can never
enter into the presence of the Lord. But oh, you see, we didn't
come preaching that, did we? We didn't come preaching to men
that there is no hope. We come preaching to men that
there is hope in Christ, that He is the Savior of sinners.
And so when a man has been ministered death by the law of God and he
has been slain before it, the sweet sound of the gospel is
that Christ is the Savior, that Christ is the righteousness of
God. Much more does the ministration
of righteousness exceed in glory. So what do we see in Christ?
the ministration of righteousness. Because He is the righteousness
of God, is He not? I mean, is there any other righteousness
that can give a man a place of standing before God? Not a bit. That's why we sang in that song
just a moment ago, Jesus thy blood and righteousness, my beauty
o'er my glorious dress. amidst flaming walls, and these
arrayed with joy shall I lift up my head." And that is exactly
what Paul is saying here. In the midst of this ministration
of death, there is a glorious ministration of righteousness.
For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this
respect by reason of the glory that it selleth. Now, what he
is saying there is the law really compared to the gospel does not
have any glory. But the glory is seen in the
gospel. The reason of the glory that
excelleth is the ministration of the righteousness of Christ
that is the fulfillment of the law. For if that which is done
away was glorious, how much more that which remaineth is glorious.
Now how is the law done away with? Did the Lord say, well,
the Ten Commandments are no longer in effect? I mean, did he take and do away
with it? No. He established the law. That's what Christ said. That's
what he came to do, to establish the law. But how's the law done
away? It's done away in that it is
shown to be fulfilled in Christ for all who have been given faith
to believe. And so in that fashion, the law
has no power. The law cannot condemn. The law
cannot bring us into a place of death because of the righteousness
of Christ. How much more glorious is that
glory than the glory which surrounded the mountain that Moses was on?