I invite you to turn back with
me now to 2 Corinthians chapter 3. My intent this morning is
to give you a short commentary of this chapter and then settle
on my subject in verse 18, the gospel mirror. If you have not looked at this
chapter, I encourage you to do so. As is all the word of God,
this is wonderfully amazing. Just amazing. I hope you'll listen carefully
as I go through this chapter, as these things are vitally connected
to your faith and therefore the salvation of your souls. This chapter tells us how ignorant
sinners came to hear the gospel. how ignorant sinners have some
confidence in the man who preaches to them and stands before them. And then
the results of such a ministry in our minds and hearts. So before
we talk about the gospel mirror, let's just take a brief look
at this chapter. And let me see if I can set the
context for this picture which is given us. It's called by the
old writers a simile, something similar, something that we can
look at and get an idea of the complexity of what God's doing
in us. The Apostle Paul begins this
chapter in answer to a question that some group or some individual
had asked. Evidently, somebody had questioned
his credentials as a man sent from God. I don't know anything
that this world uses more than that. They want to question whoever
it is that stands before them and tells them that God has sent
me with his gospel. They demanded some proof, some
document authorizing him as a minister of God, which Jewish rabbis had
in their possession. They had diplomas and papers
certifying that they were ministers of God and master theologians. I think if I had a master's degree
in theology from any seminary in this country, I'd go bury
it in my yard. I'd hate to think that anybody
thought I was a master theologian because I went to school. And most so-called pastors and
ministers today carry these papers and hang them on the wall. First
thing you see when you walk in their office, big old plaque
up there. Graduated such and such a date
from such and such a seminary, master's degree. Our Lord said, don't you call
any man master. Don't do it. But he said, you
call me master and you do well, for so I am. They're just one
master of theology and that's Christ. I've had some questions asked
of me, same as they ask of Paul. What seminary did he attend?
What school did he go to? Where's his papers? Beloved false prophets and preachers
need papers. They need certificates. Not so
much for the people that they preach to as for their own selves.
They need some confirmation that they're sin of God because they're
constantly questioning their calling. Somebody told them, more than
likely, they was called. I've had men do that to me when
I was in Armenian religion, false religion. Come up and tell me,
you've been called a preacher. I'd have to have some papers,
too, if that's all I had. They need these things because
God's not in their hearts and minds assuring them of their
calling. I want you to just think about
something. If a man is truly called of God, God's providence
ought to accompany him, shouldn't it? He did every other man, every
man that's given to us as an example, as a man sent from God
in this book, God's providence, attended his life and his ministry. His spirit will work in conjunction
with him, and he will, without excuse, exhibit the gifts and
graces of God, which confirms his calling. He'll preach Christ
to you. He'll do it in plain language.
He won't disguise it with a bunch of intellect. He'll say it so
you'll at least know what he said. And if you don't have these things,
then you need papers. You need diplomas. You need a
dress to put on. You need letters of recommendation. Paul said to them in verse two,
you are our epistle, our letter of record. You are. You are. And you're written in
our hearts and known and read by all men. That is those who
hear, those who heard him preach. And by the spirit of the living
God are enabled to believe and to submit You know that's one
of the things Paul said about knowing your election of God.
In fact, it's the second thing he said. He first told them because
our gospel came not unto you in word only. It came in power
and in the Holy Ghost. That's the first thing I told
you here. His spirit works in conjunction with the man he calls.
Second thing he said, you become followers of us in the Lord. Huh? They submitted. They submitted. It takes an act of grace for
a man to submit to another man and say, that man's called to
God. I didn't know Henry Mahan from
the man in the moon. And I went up to his church because
somebody told me he was preaching the gospel. And I sat and heard
him that night. And I told my wife, I said, that
man's called to God. He's called to God. How'd I know
that? I don't know how. You just do.
Believers do. And they submit. They submit. And they rejoice in his words. And they confirm that preacher's
calling of God. And they go tell everybody they
come in contact with, you need to come hear this man. You need
to come hear him. Paul being called of God and
having Christ revealed in him to enable him to preach to the
heathen. Here's the very next words he
tells these Galatians. He said, when it pleased God
who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace
to reveal his son in me that I might preach him among the
heathen. Now listen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and
blood. I didn't go talking over with
anybody. Why not? Because God taught him. God taught him. Neither went
I up to Jerusalem to them that were apostles before me. I didn't
go up there to get letters from them. I didn't go up there to
get their approval. I started doing what God called
me to do. I started preaching to the heathen. And three years after, I went
up and visited with them for a few days. And then went back
to preaching. Paul's credentials were the gospel
revelation of Christ and the inward dwelling of the Holy Ghost. Ye, he said in verse three, are
manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered
by us, not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God,
and not in tables of stone, as the law was, but in the fleshly
tables of the heart. That which confirms a man as
a true minister of Christ is the power and presence of the
Holy Ghost, which works in him in conjunction with the gospel
he preaches. It enables him. God hath made
us, Paul said, able ministers of the New Testament. Not that we're sufficient of
ourselves to think anything of ourselves. Our sufficiency, he
said, is of God. It's all of God. And then in
verses seven through 11, he talks about the superior glory of the
gospel and the ministry of the gospel to the glory of the giving
and ministration of the law. It was a glorious thing. Signs
and undeniable evidences confirming that it was God's law given to
be ministered to them by Moses as his servant. Man, not so much
as a beast was to touch that mountain. That mountain quaked. Smoke rose up off of it. So much
as a beast would touch that thing, they'd be pierced through with
the dark. They didn't go, they said, Moses, you go talk for
us. We don't want to go up there. We don't want. It was a glorious thing. Moses
come down off that mountain, had to put a veil on his face. His face shone with the Shekinah
glory of God, and they couldn't look on him. They had to put
a veil over his face. And then look here in verse 10.
For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this
respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. The glory of
the New Testament is the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That glory which was surrounded
the giving of the law was nothing compared to the glory that surrounded
our Lord Jesus Christ. When you looked to the law, What
was preeminent when you look to the law? It was the justice
of God manifested in the law. When we talk about the law today,
preachers put it out as though doing the best you can, that'll
serve as keeping the law. That won't serve as keeping the
law. Cursed is everyone who continueth not in all things written in
the book of the law to do. The soul that's in it shall surely
die. There's no tolerance in the law.
And the law could not offer mercy or love or kindness or grace,
just judgment. But in the gospel, the whole
of the glory of God is revealed. Love and mercy and kindness and
grace, and yet, along with it, justice and righteousness and
holiness. Under the law, a yearly atonement
was offered, but it had to be repeated every year, every year. Hebrews 10.4, it said, for it
is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take
away sin. These things were just types,
they were just shadows. But Christ entered in once, it
says, into the holy place with his own blood and obtained eternal
redemption for us. That's the glory that exceveth. While the law seemed, served
as a pattern of good things to come, Christ came and accomplished
the redemptive will of God. He justified all his elect and
he made them righteous in himself. Oh, what a glorious thing it
is to hear and receive and rejoice in the gospel of Christ, in Him. You're looking for some sufficiency,
aren't you? You're looking for something
to get a hold of, some evidence, something to hang on to, something
to give you hope in eternity. You could die in the next minute.
What do you got? What kind of hope you got to
enter into eternity? What kind of hope do you have?
In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now listen,
and you're complete in him. You don't need anything else.
But be sure you have him. If you have him, you have everything
God has for sinners. If you have him. Oh, what a glorious thing it
is to hear and receive and rejoice in the gospel of Christ. And
this is the glory that excelleth in the ministration of the Spirit. And I'm going to tell you something,
where there is no gospel preached, there is no spirit ministered. You better come to a realization
of that, because it's so. All right, here's the third thing.
This whole world has a veil. What's it veiling from? It prevents
them from understanding anything written in the Old Testament
scriptures. They don't understand anything. I was talking to my sister one
day. She'd been to church most of her life, but not a gospel
church. And she said, that's in the Old
Testament. Hell and torment, pain and wars,
that's all Old Testament stuff. That's not New Testament stuff. Religion, for the most part,
finds only commandments in the Old Testament that they cannot
keep. They try under a pretense of
obedience. And they find also stories like
Samson, and they make men to love stories. Hollywood produces
movies about it. stories about Samson and Abraham
and Moses and Daniel, but to see no redeemer pictured in these
things. They see no gospel of Christ,
no reason for his coming, no necessity in his coming, no glory
in his person, no comfort in his accomplishments. Second Corinthians 3.14 it said,
but their minds were blinded for until this day remaineth
the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament. Now listen to this, which veil
is done away in Christ. When a man finds out who Christ
is, who is this man? Why did he come, what did he
do, where is he now? When a man learns those things,
when God pleased to reveal Christ to him, that Old Testament comes
alive then. It comes alive. Oh, what a beautiful
picture of Christ, huh? It ceases to just be a moral
story, a fable, and it becomes like a painting, like a masterpiece,
and you see Christ pictured in all of these things. Believers know and rejoice in
the Old Testament pictures and promises of Christ, and they
see them as a confirmation that Jesus is the Christ. There's
no way that you can know if Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ except
through the Old Testament. We say the apostles already argued
that. Yes, and they argued it from the Old Testament. They
didn't have a New Testament. They were the New Testament. Jesus Christ is called the chief
cornerstone, and as the cornerstone, he stands there, and you stand
before that cornerstone, and you look, and you can see both
directions. You can see all the way back
to Genesis 1, and you can see all the way to the end of time.
Huh? Damn high in that cornerstone.
It's the connection. It connects the two together. This whole world is blinded by
the veil of nature, fallen nature, false religion, and unbelief.
And it looks around, and it looks within, and then it attempts
to discern the past and the present and the future. They live, they
walk, they will in the vanity of their minds, having their
understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God
through the ignorance that is in them. But Paul said, you've
not so learned Christ, if so be you've heard and have
been taught by him as the truth is in him. That's not how you
learn Christ. 2 Corinthians 3.15. 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. Glorious
liberty. Liberty from our fallen natures. Liberty from the curse of the
law. Liberty from the condemnation of our sins and from the fear
of death and judgment. Liberty. You were forbidden to eat pork
in the Old Testament. I fixed two big Boston butts
on my smoker and I enjoyed. When they got done, I pulled
them and that fresh pork, ain't nothing like it. Huh? Liberty. Liberty. Glorious liberty. The liberty, the right and privilege
to become sons of God. Oh, my soul. A man comes to that place when
he can't even justify himself, he can't Even his own excuses
no longer make any sense to him. And all of a sudden you see him
and he's converted. He's on God's side condemning
himself. And he has no rights. He's not
expecting anything but condemnation. And there he sits, and then God
reveals Christ to him. Liberty. Now you have the right
and privilege to become sons of God. Where'd you get it? In Christ. In Christ. All right, here's the fourth
thing and the heart of what I'm laboring to teach us from these
verses. The gospel mirror. We all, verse 18, 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 lots of folks take this and
run off and they say, well, you're looking in there and you're seeing
Christ and now, your works begin to fall in order, and this begins
to fall in order, and your life begins, that's not what he's
talking about here at all. The mirror is the gospel of Christ. It's the gospel taken right out
of this book. It's in perfect communion with
this book, perfect agreement with this book, And it is the
gospel according to the word of God. What is the mirror? The mirror
is the gospel. One of the best passages I know
to show you this is in 1 Peter 1. In verse 23 it says, being
born again. Not of corruptible seed, but
incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth
forever. For all flesh is grass, and all
the glory of man is like the flower of the grass. It comes
forth in its season and blooms, and then it dries up and it's
cast into the fire. But the word of the Lord, verse
25. Now listen to me. The word of the Lord endureth
forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. The converting word. That word which is the seed of
regeneration is the word preached unto you through the gospel. The word of God is God's testimony
concerning his son and the redemption which he's purposed, promised,
and accomplished in him. To him give all the prophets
witness that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall
receive remission of sins. And the gospel is that mirror
that a believer's made to look into to see the truth about himself. My bathroom's arranged, you have
to walk by the vanity to get to the shower. And I get up a
lot of mornings and I'm on my way to the shower and I look
in that mirror. That can't be me. But it is. It is. You look in there and
you see the truth, don't you? Your hair's all out like this.
Big wrinkles under your eyes. Oh, my soul. We look in that mirror, and we
see the truth about ourselves. Why do we look in the mirror?
Huh? Why do you even look in the mirror?
Well, most of us look in the mirror, and we're not satisfied
with what we see, and so we do what we can to improve the image.
That's why we look in the mirror. I used to drive to Lexington,
Kentucky in the morning, go to work. Two miles outside of town,
the sun visors went down and the lady driving was doing this
and looking in the mirror and putting her lipstick on. You
try to do something with it, you know, something to make it
appear better than it really is. So then when you look in the
mirror, it becomes a projection of before and after. You've seen
before and after pictures. When the word of the gospel is
preached, it projects an image to those who look into it of
their fallen nature, of their real selves. It doesn't leave
out any details. It reveals things that only God
can see. He can reveal the motives. How
does he do it? Well, according to Hebrews, that's
the word of God. that does that. It's a discerner
of the hearts and minds of men. It'll expose you in a way you've
never been exposed. Most people, when you start to
tell them about the depravity of man, they'll say, wait a minute,
I don't hate God. God said you do. If he gets you to look in the
mirror, you'll see that you do. Listen to Paul as he makes his
hearers look into this mirror. All, he said, I before proved
are under sin, none righteous, none that understandeth, none
that seeketh after God, all gone out of the way, together become
unprofitable, none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throats
an open tomb with their tongues they've used to see, poison of
snakes is under their lips, Their mouths are full of bitterness
and cursing. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Destruction and misery are in the ways and the way of
peace they've not known. And there is no fear of God before
their eyes. You look in the gospel mirror,
that's what you're gonna see. You're gonna see the truth about
yourself. Can you look in God's mirror
and see yourself as you really are? Helpless, hopeless sinners. Sinners by birth, by choice,
by practice. And if you can, you'll know this
next verse. What thing soever the law saith,
it saith to them that are under the law that every mouth shall
be stopped. And all the world become guilty
before God. You look in that mirror and see
yourself as you are, you'll come away saying, guilty, I'm guilty. You can't deny it, there it is.
There it is. But oh, thank God that's not
the end of the mirror. Now he's gonna show you how you
really are in Christ. Paul tells the saints at Colossae
that by his accomplished redemption, he hath presented us to the Father,
unblameable. Where are you going to see that? You're going to see that in His
mirror. That's the only place you're going to find that. Unblameable. You're standing there and you're
looking in here and here's the image of Christ and you're one
with Him and you're in Him. He's your representative. He's
your Savior. He's your substitute. You're
unblameable. Not only that, you're unreprovable. God has nothing to say to you
to reprove you in Christ. You're perfect. You're perfect. Unblameable and unreprovable
in God's sight. And there's no other glass in
the world where you can see yourself as a man as good and as righteous
as God. But that's what you see when
you see Christ. Huh? Salvation is being in Christ. If you're not in Christ, you'll
stay just the way you saw your image in the beginning. But in
Christ, I'm unblameable. I'm righteous. I'm holy. I'm as good as God in Him. Listen to this, by one offering
He hath perfected perfected forever them that are sanctified. Oh my soul. And then he tells
us whereof the Holy Ghost is a witness to us. He's a witness
to us. When we look into this gospel
mirror, we see the before and after image of ourselves. Before
a God-hating hypocrite, ignorant, hostile, rebellious, after any
son, an heir, and join heir with Christ. Before ungodly, all your
righteousnesses as filthy rags, after holy and righteous. These things can only be discerned
through this gospel mirror. You're not going to figure them
out on your own. You're not going to find these
things out in some false religion. You can only see these things
in the reality of the gospel mirror. I'd like for you to turn
with me over to the book of Ezekiel, and I'm going to wrap this thing
up. I want to show you how God pictured his people in this mirror. Both images, both images. He's gonna tell you the truth
about the sinner in Ezekiel chapter 16. Now watch this in verse one. Again, the word of the Lord came
unto me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations. And say, thus saith the Lord
God unto Jerusalem, unto these religious hypocrites. Thy birth
and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan. You're a Gentile dog. Thy father was an Amorite and
thy mother a Hittite. And as for thy nativity, your
beginning, In the day thou wast born, thy navel was not cut,
neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee. Thou wast not
salted at all, nor swaddled at all. None eye pitted thee to
do any of these unto thee, but thou wast cast out in the open
field to the loathing of thy person. In the day that thou
wast born. You see this image? This little
baby being born. No love, no care. Took it by its feet, threw it
over in the sand, and walked away. Walked away. Verse six, something happened when I passed by there. and saw thee polluted in thy
blood. I said unto thee, while thou
wast in thy blood, lying there in the sand, filthy, uncared
for, cast away, I said unto thee, live. Who did? God did. Yea, I said unto thee,
when thou wast in thy blood, live. And I caused thee to multiply
as the bud of the field, and thou wast increased in wax and
grade. And thou art come to excellent
ornaments. Thy breasts were fashioned, and
thy hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. And when
I passed by thee and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was a
time of love. And I spread my skirt over thee,
and covered thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee, and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becameest
mine. Then washed I thee with water. Yea, I throughly washed away
thy blood from thee, and anointed thee with oil. And I clothed
thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badger skins,
and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee
with silk. I decked thee also with ornaments,
and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain upon thy neck,
and I put a jewel in your forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and
a beautiful crown upon your head. Who did he do this to? That unwanted lying there in its filth. Thus was thou decked with gold
and silver, and thy raiment was of fine linen and silk and broodward
warp. Thou didst eat fine flour and
honey and oil, and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou
didst prosper into a kingdom, and thy renown went forth among
the heathen for thy beauty. Now listen, for it was perfect
It wasn't as good as you try. It was perfect. Who's saying
this? God is. It was perfect through
my comeliness. Which I put upon thee, saith
the Lord. That's what believers see when
they look in the mirror. They see the truth. And oh, they
see the love of God. The love of God. It's not all
the threats, all the projections of hell that religion talk about.
It's the love of God. The love of God. And you see
it. You see it. And you see yourself
before you was ever born, cradled in his hand. Cared for. Cared for. Provided for. made
provision for us for all eternity. Oh, I wish I could preach this
gospel mirror as I really see it in my heart. May the Lord
be pleased to reveal it to you. Thank you.