Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. And if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm doing a series of messages in the book of 2
Corinthians chapter three. 2 Corinthians chapter three in
the New Testament, Paul's second letter to the church at Corinth.
And the title of these messages is the New Testament. This is
part four of the New Testament. And I've explained this in the
other messages. If you haven't heard the, First
three messages on this series, I urge you to listen to them.
You can go to our website and listen to them. You can order
them however you want in whatever form you want. And it's a good
study because what Paul is doing here is he's showing a great
contrast between the old covenant, which was the covenant that God
had placed the nation Israel under from Mount Sinai, that's
where he gave the Ten Commandments and the other laws, through Moses,
and it lasted from Mount Sinai to Mount Calvary when Christ
came and did his great work. That was the time of the Old
Covenant. That was about a period of around 1,500 years. Most of
the Old Testament literature is concerned with the history
of Israel under the Old Covenant, and that's why it's called the
Old Testament. The word testament here in verse six and other places
is the covenant. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians
3, six, where God has made us able ministers of the New Testament. That's the new covenant. Now,
once again, the new covenant And when we're talking, we're
not talking about these things in a literary way. The New Testament
being the books of the Bible from Matthew to Revelation, and
the Old Testament being the books of the Bible from Genesis to
Malachi. We're talking about them as the
covenants that God has placed his people under. The old covenant,
this nation Israel under that covenant. That was a conditional
covenant. There were stipulations in that
covenant. that Israel had to meet in order
for God to bless them while they were under that covenant. Now,
their coming under that covenant was not conditioned on them.
That was something God did years before that based on a promise
that God made to Abraham. So Israel being the nation that
God chose to be under that covenant, and their being brought under
that covenant was not conditioned on them. God told Abraham 400,
the Bible says 430 years before that he was gonna do that. But
their being blessed under that covenant as a nation was conditioned
upon them. Blessing based upon their obedience,
cursing based upon their disobedience, and then eventually, if they
didn't keep the covenant, they would be gone as a nation. And that's really what happened.
That's what God preordained. And you'll see that. That covenant
was never intended to be eternal. And Paul says this. Look at verse
six. God hath made us able ministers
of the New Testament. That's what the preaching of
the gospel is. Not of the letter, but of the
Spirit, of the Holy Spirit. The word Spirit there should
be capitalized. For the letter killeth, and the
Spirit, the Holy Spirit, gives life. That old covenant was a
covenant of death, verse seven. But if the ministration or ministry
of death, and it was 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. Now I dealt with that verse last
week and I urge you to get the message if you have questions
about that. But that covenant was never intended
to last forever and ever. It was intended to be in force
from Sinai until Christ came. And I mentioned last week how
when Christ died on the cross for the sins of his people imputed
to him, given to him, all that were given to him, the veil in
the temple was torn in two, rent in two, the scripture says, from
top to bottom, indicating that that old covenant had been abolished
by way of fulfillment. Christ fulfilled it all. He fulfilled
the law perfectly. He fulfilled all the types in
the pictures. He fulfilled all the promises
that God made to Abraham before this Old Covenant was enforced.
The book of Hebrews speaks of that. In fact, the book of Hebrews
is a commentary on that very thing. That's what we need to
understand. Well, if you look at verse seven
again, he says, but if the ministration of death, now that's what he
calls the Old Covenant, And then in verse eight, he says, how
shall not the ministration of the Spirit, again, that's the
Holy Spirit, be rather glorious? Now, was the Holy Spirit involved
in anything in the Old Covenant? Yes. He was a ministering spirit. And anybody who was saved eternally,
not by the terms of the Old Covenant, but by the terms of the everlasting
covenant of grace in Christ, They were just, they were born
again, regenerated by the Holy Spirit just like people today
under the Old Covenant. And I'm gonna show you that in
the Old Testament. But on the whole, the nation
Israel perished in unbelief. But there was always a remnant. Isaiah speaks of the remnant.
of the election of grace. You see, God has a people that
he marked out for salvation before the foundation of the world,
and he gave them to Christ. Christ came as their surety and
their substitute and their redeemer, and they shall be saved. Now,
the way we're to look at that, according to the Bible, is that
we're to seek the Lord in the word. We're not to be concerned
if we're elect or chosen or not. in this thing, until after we
come to faith in Christ. We're to look unto Christ, we're
to believe the gospel. Now nobody will except the Spirit
of God give them life. And that's what he talks about,
the ministration of the Spirit. The ministration of the Spirit,
the life-giving Spirit. You must be born again. Well,
look at verse nine. He says, for if the ministration
of condemnation be glory. Now, the ministry of condemnation
was the law. The law condemns. By deeds of
the law shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. Listen, there
were no sins forgiven under the old covenant by the blood of
animals. Hebrews 10 tells us the blood of bulls and goats
could never take away sin. If anybody's sins were forgiven
under the old covenant and there was a remnant, it was based upon
what Christ, in the future, to them, would come and accomplish
on Calvary's cross by the shedding of his blood. We're redeemed
with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without spot and
without blemish. You see, those who were justified
in the old covenant, and even before them were justified by
the grace of God based upon the blood of Christ, His righteousness
that had been imputed to them, charged to them. And they looked
forward to Christ's coming. And the reason they looked forward
is because the Spirit had given them life. They were born again.
You must be born again or you cannot see the kingdom of heaven,
the kingdom of God. And so he says in verse nine,
if the ministration of condemnation be glory. And I spoke of this
last week, how there were so many glorious things that took
place from Sinai to the cross. But it did not bring Israel to
faith. I mentioned this last week too,
how people say, well, just like crossing the Red Sea, oh, if
we could see something like that, we would believe. Israel didn't.
They got on the other side of the Red Sea and they began to
complain and murmur. And remember, that's when Moses
went up in the mountain, that's when they concocted a golden
calf and worshiped it. Listen, the only way that a sinner
will be brought to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works
is by the ministration of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, giving
to them the life of Jesus Christ, the resurrection life of Christ
in new birth. You must be born again. And that's
the most glorious thing that ever was. You see, the glory
of all the miracles and all of the types in the pictures under
the old covenant, that's gone now. but it's been replaced by
a greater glory. We might say it's been fulfilled,
and that's the glory of Christ. And we read that last week over
in 2 Corinthians 4, 6. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts. not just
outwardly, not just something we see physically, but in our
hearts. And what kind of heart is it?
That's the new heart, given by the Spirit. That's the new life
that He gives us. Some call that the new nature,
and that's okay if you don't take that too far and go beyond
biblical truth with it. That's okay. But He says, shine
within our hearts, our minds, our affections, our wills. And
he says, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ, in the person and work of Christ.
So in verse nine again, 2 Corinthians 3, for if the ministration of
condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration or ministry
of righteousness exceed in glory. Now what is the ministration
of righteousness, the ministry of righteousness? It's the gospel. that concerns the glorious person
and the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the
righteousness that exceeds. You see, in the law, in the old
covenant, there was no ability of any sinner to attain righteousness
by their works, and there still isn't. Even before the law, righteousness
could not be attained by our works. A person could determine
in their minds that they were gonna keep the Ten Commandments
and keep the whole law from the beginning, they would fail. For by deeds of law shall no
flesh be justified. What is it to be justified? It's
to be forgiven of all my sins. Well my friend, my works cannot
wash away my sins. My tears cannot wash away my
sins. My repentance, even my faith,
cannot wash away my sins. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. That was true under the old covenant
and true under the new covenant. You see, there were many washings,
ceremonial washings, to cleanse them ceremonially under the old
covenant, but it could not wash away my sins. It could not make
the heart clean. The only one who can make the
heart clean is the Holy Spirit applying the blood of Christ,
sprinkling of the blood of Christ on the heart, the new heart.
And so he says, the ministration of righteousness. That's what
the gospel is. That's why I said last week how
the new covenant is the establishment in time of the everlasting covenant
of grace made before time. Think about that. What is righteousness? It's perfect satisfaction to
God's law and justice. No sinner can attain that. Now,
even under the old covenant, and now, right now, we cannot
attain that by our works. And that's why the Bible says
that Christ, in Romans 10, four, is the end, the fulfillment,
the perfection, the finishing of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. With a heart man believes unto
righteousness. What does that mean? It means
we believe in Christ. And so he says that exceeds in glory.
Look at verse 10. For even that which was made
glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory
that excelleth. And so he's talking about the
glory that excels, that's Christ. That's his blood, his righteousness,
the grace of God. Well, you know, he called the
ministration of the Old Covenant the ministration of death, the
ministration of condemnation, in contrast with the New Covenant,
which is a ministration of the spirit of life, and the ministration
of glory and righteousness. Look back in Jeremiah. Let's go to Jeremiah chapter
31, and let me show you something here, that even Jeremiah knew
this in prophecy. And Jeremiah, he preached to
the southern kingdom of Judah, and he mainly spoke in Jerusalem,
about their upcoming judgment. God was getting ready to judge
them and take them into captivity in Babylon. And Jeremiah's message
was very plain. He says, we deserve what we are
getting. We might as well submit to God's
work, God's way. because that's what we deserve.
That's a picture of God bringing a sinner to salvation, saying,
I know God, if you were to judge me based upon my best, I deserve
nothing but condemnation. God, have mercy on me, the sinner. And Jeremiah preached that to
the nation of Judah. He said, we're just getting what
we've earned, getting what we deserve. And the people on the
whole, went against him. They called him a prophet of
doom. They called him the burden of the Lord, who never had anything
good to say about them. Here comes the burden of the
Lord. And they would go out and find them false prophets who
would speak peace to them, who would give them what they wanted.
It's like people today. If they come and hear a true
preacher of the gospel who tells them what they really are, sinners,
including himself. who need salvation by grace,
who do not deserve the least of God's blessings. They reject
that and they go find them a false preacher who tell them that God
loves you, Christ died for you, you're okay, you're okay, peace,
peace. And so Jeremiah told him and
he goes back here, this is Jeremiah 31, look at verse 31. He says there is hope, though.
God's judgment's coming, but there is hope. But it's not in
us. It's not in the old covenant.
It's in the future of a new covenant. He says, behold, the days come,
saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant, a new testament. with the house of Israel and
with the house of Judah. Now, when Jeremiah was preaching,
the northern kingdom of Israel was totally gone. The Assyrian
Empire army had destroyed them and scattered them. And the nation of Judah was about to
go into captivity. Now God was gonna bring them
back out, even Jeremiah said that after 70 years of captivity.
But it was never the same. But under the new covenant, there's
not going to be a divided nation. That's what he's saying. It's
going to be a unity of nations under the headship of Christ.
And what he's talking about here is spiritual Israel. Israel,
the name means prevailing with God. Now, how does a sinner prevail
with God? By looking to Christ. And then
the name Judah means praise. They're gonna praise God. And
who was to come through the tribe of Judah? Christ. So it's gonna
be a union of a spiritual nation, not a physical one, but a spiritual
nation under the headship of Christ. And he says in verse
two, listen, not according to the covenant that I made with
their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring
them out of the land of Egypt. That's the old covenant, Mount
Sinai. Which my covenant they break. They broke it. And what was the
penalty of breaking the covenant? Death. Condemnation. And he says, although I wasn't
husband unto them, saith the Lord. Even though I did unite
with them, just like in a marriage relationship. All right, even
though they broke it. And so it's like an unfaithful
wife. Israel was like an unfaithful
wife. Well, that's what we are by nature. But under the old
covenant, the terms were set and the penalty for breaking
the covenant, the penalty for being an unfaithful wife was
death, separation from God in a physical, temporal, ceremonial
way. Later on, Jeremiah said that
God had given Israel a bill of divorce. In other words, God
would divorce himself from them. You see that? Because they were
an unfaithful wife. Now let me tell you something
about the new covenant, the everlasting covenant of grace. There is no
possibility of divorce under that. You see, God will bring
them to an eternal salvation. But look on, he says, even though
I wasn't husband in them, saith the Lord. But verse 33, he says
in Jeremiah 31, but this shall be the covenant that I will make
with the house of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord,
I will put my law in their inward parts. That's their heart. And write it in their hearts
and will be their God. and they shall be my people.
That's a marriage covenant that can never be broken. How's he
gonna put his law in their hearts? How's he going to write it in
their hearts? He's gonna give them a new heart. He's going
to, that's the new birth. This is the spirit of life, the
Holy Spirit through the word of God. imparting spiritual life
to a dead sinner, giving him eyes to see and ears to hear,
a new heart to love and to receive the Word of God, to receive Christ,
to believe in Him, giving Him the gift of faith, giving Him
the gift of repentance, holding onto them and not letting them
go. He said, I will not let them go. causing them to persevere,
continue in the faith. In verse 34, listen, he says,
they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man
his brother, saying, know the Lord. Now what he means by that,
under the old covenant, the nation Israel who rebelled against the
Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they descended into
where they didn't even know who God was. And the prophets continually
come, you need to know the Lord, you need to know God. That's
what I tell people today who are in false Christianity. They've
got ideas about God that aren't true. And I tell them all the
time, I tell you, I say, you need to know the Lord from his
word, what he says about himself. If you're in a church where it's
preaching things about God that aren't true, you need to get
out. and go where the true and living
God is preached in all of his attributes, his sovereignty,
his election of grace, his immutability, his grace and mercy and love,
even his hatred. I had a man tell me one time,
he said, I don't wanna have anything to do with a God who hates. Well,
you don't wanna have anything to do with the God of the Bible
then, because he says that he hateth all workers of iniquity.
Well, aren't we all workers of iniquity? Well, we are in practice. But God's elect in the Lord Jesus
Christ, washed in his blood and clothed in his righteousness,
God does not impute, charge, account their iniquities to them.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that
justifies. Who can condemn? It's Christ
that does. And so he says, in the day of the new covenant,
the people who are brought under the new covenant by the Holy
Spirit applying the life of Christ to them in the new birth, bringing
them to faith in Christ and repentance under the preaching of the gospel,
We won't have to continually tell them, know the Lord, for
they shall all know me. This is verse 34, for they shall
all know me. From the least of them unto the
greatest of them, saith the Lord, and for I will forgive their
iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. Now what does
it mean when God says he'll remember their sin no more? God doesn't
change. Does that mean God will wipe it out of his mind and forget
it and never knew it happened? No, it means God will not impute
it to them. It means God will not charge
them with their sins. It means God will hold no record
of their sins against them. Their sins were imputed, charged
to Christ. He was made sin. Christ who knew
no sin, 2 Corinthians 5, 21, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. When I stand before God at judgment,
my sins will not be brought up. He said he'll remember them no
more. But I will stand there in the righteousness of his Son,
freely imputed to me, evidenced by God-given faith and perseverance
in the faith. Well, go back to 2 Corinthians
3 now. He says in verse 11, for if that
which is done away was glorious, that's the old covenant, Much
more that which remaineth is glorious. Well, what remains? My friend, what remains is the
new covenant, the everlasting covenant of grace, salvation
eternal, unchangeable. Salvation, a salvation that cannot
be corrupted or taken away. It's of Christ, it's of God in
Christ. the righteousness of God. You
understand that. Now, Israel sought righteousness
by works of the law, Romans 9 tells us. And when Christ came, they
rejected him. But there was a remnant, God's
elect, the election of grace. And then look back at 2 Corinthians
3, he says in verse 12, now listen to this, he says, seeing then
that we have such hope, what a hope we have, Because it's
hope in Christ. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. That's the hope
that believers have. And so having such a great and
glorious eternal sure hope, we use great plainness or boldness
of speech. I'm preaching plainly and boldly. And he says in verse 13, not
as Moses, which put a veil over his face, which the children
of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which
is abolished. They couldn't look upon it, it
was so glorious, but they couldn't see the finality of it, they
couldn't see the end of it, which was to be abolished. Verse 14,
now listen to this. But their minds were blinded.
For until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in
the reading of the Old Testament. Now this is the Old Testament
scriptures or the Old Covenant. which veil is done away in Christ."
In other words, he's saying that there's a veil of darkness that
blinds the Israelites when they read the Old Testament, read
the Old Covenant. And it's a veil of self-righteousness.
It's a veil of self-love and pride. And it blinds them. It's ignorance. Satan has blinded
the minds of them which believe not. But it's done away in Christ. When God the Holy Spirit convicts
us of sin and turns us to Christ, that veil of darkness, that veil
of blindness is done away. Look unto Christ for salvation. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
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today and may the Lord be with you.