The third chapter of the second
epistle of Paul to the Corinthians presents unto us a tremendous
vindication of the power of the gospel and the excellency of
the New Testament. Paul contrasts the preaching
or the ministry of the Old Testament with the ministry of the New
Testament. He contrasts the ministry of
the letter with the ministry of the Spirit, the ministry of
death, with the ministry of life in the Gospel. He shows that
there was a tremendous glory to that which Moses delivered
on Sinai. God's law to the people, God's
speech, God's demands of how they should be to live before
God in righteousness. There was a glory to it. There
was a glory to what was said. There was a glory to what was
ordained. There was a glory to the priesthood
and the ministration and the sacrifices which were offered.
But none of that brought life. It demanded of the people what
they could not render and slew them and condemned them and brought
them in guilty before God. Brought them in in need of God
to do something for them, in need of a sacrifice, in need
of the shedding of blood, in need of someone to die in their
state and take the judgment of God against their sins upon them.
That was why under the Old Testament God gave the people a priesthood
who offered sacrifices on their behalf. Not because that priesthood
or those sacrifices could deliver them from their sins, but because
it presented unto them a picture of a coming high priest and a
picture of a coming sacrifice, who under the New Testament would
deliver the people from their sins. He would take the wrath
of God against their sin and their corruption, and he would
swallow it up in victory. and He would deliver them from
that death and condemnation which they found themselves under and
bring them unto God and to eternal life and bring them in as righteous
before a holy and a righteous God. He would bring in a victory
And therefore Paul shows that there is a glory under the old
covenant, but there is a far greater glory and power under
the new, because the new fulfilled all that the old was a picture
of. And the new delivered the people
from that which the ministration of death brought upon them. and
it delivered them by bringing them under a ministration of
life and of righteousness and of the Spirit of God. Oh what
a glory and a power there is in the Gospel of Christ and the
New Covenant. And Paul contrasts this He doesn't
have to commend his ministry to a people simply by repeating
commendations of others or words in the letter. because he's not
under the old covenant, he's under the new. And his preaching
was a preaching of the new covenant, a preaching of that very gospel
which brought life. And his hearers, having been
brought to life by the preaching of that gospel, had the proof
in themselves that what Paul preached was the very truth of
Almighty God. What Paul preached brought the
effects of which Paul spake. Paul said this gospel will deliver
you from your sins. This gospel is the power of God
unto life and those who had the work of God performed upon them
by that gospel knew it. and they knew that what Paul
said was true because they'd experienced the reality and the
power of what Paul declared. in their own hearts and in their
own experience and if you're brought this way to hear this
very message by preachers like Paul then you will say yea and
amen to all that is said because you will know that once you were
blind and now you see. that once you were dead under
trespasses and sins and now you have been washed by the blood
of Jesus Christ, now you live, now you have the righteousness
of God. Now you know that God in mercy
looked favorably upon you and said unto you in your filth and
corruption as you lay in the gutter, as you lay in the grave,
he said unto you live, rise up my son, stand and walk, thy sins
be forgiven thee. You will know the power of the
gospel when God preaches it unto you by the Spirit. And you will
know that those who came preaching it spake truth. Yes, what a contrast
there is with that preaching which comes from on high by the
Spirit of God through the lips of those preachers, those able
ministers of the New Testament that God sends to preach of Christ
and the fallen sinners. What a contrast there is with
that preaching which brings the power of God unto salvation.
with that other sort of preaching where men appoint themselves
and where men bring the letter the letter of the scripture the
mere words and speak of how people should live and how they should
be and they have no power there's no effect They whip up people's
consciences such that the people strive to be what they are not
by nature. They tell people what they should
be as professing believers. They tell people what they should
do. They tell people how to live. And the people strive and try. And they can make a great show
in the flesh as Paul once did. As he did as a minister of the
old covenant, as a Pharisee of the Pharisees. They can make
a great show in the flesh and deceive many. and go to all the
right places and say all the right things. They're at every
meeting. They have their Bible. They can
quote chapter and verse. They know how they should be.
And yet they're dead. Inside they're dead. And their message is killing
because it's of the letter. And as Paul says in 2 Corinthians
3, the letter killeth. But the Spirit giveth life. Now
do you profess to follow Jesus Christ? Do you profess His name? Do you speak of your belief in
Him and in the Gospel? If you do, Is your experience
and knowledge of that Gospel and that Saviour, that which
came by the Spirit of God through the preachers whom God sent,
or that which came by the letter? Is it all a sham? Is it all an
outward show? Is it all your effort to follow
Christ? your efforts to follow him as
your Lord, your efforts to give lip service of obedience, is
it all you? Or is it all, all of God by grace? Because salvation is all of grace,
there is no mixture. There is no mixture of your works
with His works, your righteousness with His righteousness, your
will with His will. By nature we are unwilling, unrighteous,
and full of filthy works of iniquity. And it's such as these that God
in grace cleanses by the blood of Christ. He takes the unwilling
and by His almighty power He makes them willing. He takes
the unrighteous and He cleanses them in the blood of Christ and
makes them to be the righteousness of God. He takes those who by
nature have worked nothing but iniquity and causes them to bring
forth the works of God by the Spirit of God in their hearts.
It's all of God, there's no mixture. What is it with you? Well this is the gospel that
Paul preached, the gospel of grace, the gospel of the New
Testament. And he didn't have to commend
himself as a preacher to his hearers. They knew that God had
sent him. They knew the message he preached
was powerful. They knew the reality. He says
in 2 Corinthians 3 verse 1, 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 would, not that we are sufficient of ourselves
to think anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God,
who also have 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 glory in this respect, by reason of the glory
that exceleth. For if that which is done away
was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.
Seeing then that we have such hope, such hope we use great
plainness of speech 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.
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, Great plainness of
speech. What characterises Paul's preaching? What characterises the Apostle's
preaching? What characterises the preaching
of the New Testament? Great plainness of speech. There's no mixing of words. There's no sophistry, there's
no using the eloquence of men, great eloquent words, great swelling
speeches, great intellectual discourses in order to persuade
or to deceive or to lead the people along. There is no presenting
of truths in a subtle fashion, taking those things which are
hard to be received and sugarcoating them and making them more presentable
with pragmatic means. Paul is plain. He states the
truth as it is, even when it's hard to receive, even when we
don't like to hear. Even though it may cause his
hearers to take up stones to stone him, as they stoned that
faithful preacher Stephen, as Paul stood alongside and watched
in those days in which he was under the old covenant. The old
covenant. that covenant written in stone.
In those days when Paul was a rebel against God, though he professed
to follow God. In those days when Paul as a
Pharisee rejected Jesus Christ and his gospel. In those days,
Paul stood and had Stephen stoned. Yet Stephen faithfully stood
and testified to Christ. Well Paul, having met Christ
on the road to Damascus, and having heard the voice of Jesus
Christ calling out to him from on high, having been brought
to life by the almighty power of God, Paul having heard the
gospel and sent forth to preach it, now went forth with no fear
of man, standing boldly and declaring unto sinners with great plainness
of speech what they are and where they stand before God and what
their great need is. As we do today, you stand before
Almighty God as a rebel before your maker by nature. full of sin, full of rebellion,
under the wrath of God. And the days passed by until
that day left in such a state when you will stand before his
sentence for eternity. And if you remain a rebel he
will cast you out into outer darkness. That's the reality
of where you are by nature, like it or not. And you shut your ears to these
things and you shut your minds to these things and you shut
your eyes to the truth at your peril. Because you are a created
being, sustained by Almighty God. who has rebelled against
God and lived for yourself and not for His glory. You've turned
from His ways, turned from His truth, turned from His Gospel
and turned from His Son, whom He sent into this world as a
sacrifice for sinners, whom He sent into this world as a Saviour. And what thought and care have
you given Him all the years of your life? then God is angry
with the wicked. And if you are amongst them,
He is angry with you. There's no two ways about it. And any preacher that comes to
you trying to tell you that God loves everybody and he stands
there hoping that you will just come under him, all is well. All will be well with you when
you die. Any minister that stands over
the grave of somebody that dies and tells the relatives that
they're going to heaven, no matter what, is a deceiver. and not an able minister of the
New Testament who uses great plainness of speech because they
have such hope. Why does Paul use great plainness
of speech? Because he has such hope. He
knows that God through Christ has saved his soul, and he knows
that God through Christ saves the souls of a multitude of sinners. He knows that God sent his son
to die in the place of sinners like you and I, and shed his
blood, and shed in his blood he brought in the righteousness
of God. to clothe sinners and make them
to be righteous before God. He knows the power and the efficacy
of that blood. He knows of the hope set before
him. He knows that glory awaited him
and he knows that it awaits all for whom Christ died. He comes
with a message of hope, a message of glory, a message of life. He comes with the gospel. Good
news! Such hope. And seeing as He has
such hope, and seeing as we have such hope, we use great plainness
of speech. You need Christ. You need His
salvation. You need to be washed in His
blood. Don't you? Use great plainness of speech.
There's no yay and nay. no ifs buts and maybes, no yesterday
and no tomorrow, no yes if you do, no yes if you will, no conditions,
no yay and nay as Paul makes plain in the first chapter of
this epistle. When I therefore was thus minded
did I use lightness Or the things that I purpose, do I purpose
according to the flesh, that with me there should be yea,
yea, and nay, nay? But as God is true and our word
toward you was not yea and nay. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ,
who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and
Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea. For all the
promises of God in him are yea, and in him are men, unto the
glory of God by us. This gospel, this hope is yea
and are men in Christ Jesus, it's certain, it's sure. Christ died, He rose again from
the dead, He brought in everlasting righteousness for all His people.
All who are brought to faith in Him will be saved. And if you're brought to hear
and the Spirit of God speaks to your soul and life enters
in, you will be saved with a certainty. There's no yay and nay. There's
no conditions attached. Salvation is not there to be
earned. This salvation, this life, this
righteousness is not there if you're willing to take it. If
you walk this way, if you turn from this, if you live righteously
enough, if you, if you, there's no conditions. It's either been
brought in for you, purchased by the blood of Christ, and yours
to be granted unto you by God in due course, or it's not. It's
all His work and all His gift. It's yea and amen. He's met all
the conditions. Christ has done all that's necessary
to save his people. He's left nothing to chance,
nothing to their will, nothing for them to do. He's done it
all. He's done it all. Salvation is
of the Lord. It's by grace from start to finish. From the day he begun to purpose
it, from the day he died, through the day he rose again, to the
day the gospel sent to you by God, to the day the Spirit of
God quickens you unto life, to the day that you journey through
this earth, to the day that you breathe your last breath and
stand before Him in eternity. All is by grace and all for whom
He died will be brought to stand before Him in righteousness. It's yea and amen in Christ Jesus. He is our surety of salvation. He's our certainty. The New Testament
is in His blood. He had died and there is a testament
to be read out, a last will and testament which says for all
who are named on that testament that because of his death and
because of that testament, that covenant made before he died,
made before the foundation of the earth, because of what's
written in that covenant, all for whom he died will inherit
all things in Jesus Christ. there's a great inheritance of
eternal life and glory of a wonderful existence in a land of promise
to come a great inheritance which is theirs and it's all theirs
because he's died they have to do nothing for it Just as in
this world when a relative of yours dies and they've written
a will before their death saying, I leave all my earthly goods
to my son, my daughter, to this named person whom I love. When
that is read out to you and you're told that this has been left
to you, you've done nothing. It's all a gift. God has just
said, it's all a gift to my people. My son has died. And his New
Testament says, for all for whom he died, that I am leaving, I
am giving them all things in my son. It's yay and amen in
Christ Jesus. Not so, the ministry of the letter. not so that ministry of man when
he comes to the scriptures and comes to the gospel or comes
to the law and tries to take of the things of God and deliver
it under people in his own strength. There is a ministry which is
greatly prevalent in our day which calls itself Christianity
which labels itself as the Gospel, which takes upon itself many
names referring unto Christ, and declares unto the people
various things, and all of it is in the letter. It has the
words, it has the form, but ultimately it tells people what they must
do in order to be saved. You must be willing. You must
accept Jesus into your hearts. You must come to the front. You must say this prayer. You
must turn around your life. You must set Christ to be your
Lord. You must live in this manner. You must set yourself to keep
in the law of God. You must, you must, you must.
And however subtle and however cloaked in the words of the gospel
and the words of Jesus Christ it is, it's in the letter. And
you can tell it's in the letter because ultimately it kills.
Ultimately you put yourself under it, you hear it, you try to respond
and you find yourself failing. It sounds so right. It sounds
like it sets up Christ as your Lord and Saviour. It sounds like
you ought to be living in service before Him. It sounds so right
that you ought to serve Him in this way. And you try, and you
fail. And what is proclaimed to be
gospel becomes unto you a ministration of death. because it's of the
old covenant. Whatever words it may take, ultimately
it's bringing before you law and what you must do in order
to be righteous before a holy God. What you must do in order
to attain unto eternal life. The New Testament is not of the
letter, but of the spirit. For the letter killeth, but the
spirit giveth life. Now this preaching of the letter
is subtle. It rarely uses great plainness
of speech. It sounds right, but mixed up
are the endless commands and duties required of the hearers.
Words which appear true, but spin a web. Words which speak
of Christ, but concentrate on man. Words which are honey-coated
in grace, but which are full of works. Words which take from
the new covenant but lead back to the old covenant. You may
have heard some speak that Moses leads you unto Christ and having
been justified by Christ, Christ leads you back to Moses. What
a falsehood! What a lie! Christ never leads
you back to Moses. Once you've been led by the Spirit
of God unto Christ and His Gospel, you are led by Christ. You are
led by the Spirit in the Gospel. But their words take you from
the new back to the old. Words which promise life, but
like the letter they bring death. Subtle words, damning words,
deceivable words. and rarely delivered with great
plainness of speech. Not so with Paul, not so with
the apostles, not so with the faithful preachers of the gospel
that God calls and sends. They use great plainness of speech. They are playing about the state
of man. They are playing about who God
is before whom man must stand. They're playing about who God
is, that he is a sovereign God, an almighty God, the eternal,
the everlasting God, the only God. The only God. They're plain that He is the
only God. There is only one God and there
is only one way unto God through Jesus Christ. There is only one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Any preacher
that says there are many ways to God, that you can be a Muslim
and come unto God, that you can be Islam and come unto God, that
you can be a Buddhist and come unto God, is a liar. apostles
were playing. There's one God and there's one
mediator between God and men. There's one way of salvation,
one truth. Christ said I am the way, the
life and the truth. I am. There's only one way. They are plain about God. He
is the creator and the sustainer of all things. He made the world
in six days. He spake. He spake by the word. He spake by Christ and the world
was brought into being and man was breathed, was brought into
being. God spake life. He breathed life
into man and man was. God rules over all. And God has
a people whom he loves, who though they, like all men, have fallen
into sin, he has a people whom he has chosen in Christ to save. God loves his own. He loves Jacob
and hates Esau. The ministers of the New Testament
are playing about who God is. He's a just God, a holy God,
a righteous God. And He is a God who loves His
own, His elect chosen people. He does not love all mankind. He does not love all the wicked.
He is not striving to save all mankind or persuade all people
to turn to His Son. And He will not save all people
in the end. He will deal with people righteously,
He will send the sheep into glory with His Son and the goats into
outer darkness. There is a place called Hell,
there is eternal torment and judgment and God will deal righteously. He's not a Father Christmas God. And if you die outside of Christ,
if you've shut your ears to the gospel and are laid in the grave
and a minister prays over you and claims to the people that
you're going to heaven, he's a liar. Because unless you're
washed in the blood of God's Son, Jesus Christ, then you have
no hope. Paul was playing about the state
of man, what we are. When Adam fell in the Garden
of Eden, when he rebelled against God's command, he plunged himself
and all his posterity, you and I included, into sin. And the wrath of God burns against
our sin, and it's because he rebelled that we die. Sin entered
by one man and death by sin. We're under judgment. We're full of sin, we're born
sinners. born sinners. Paul is playing
about our fall into sin and playing about our state, that we are
totally depraved, we're full of sin, we sin through and through,
there's no good in man. The popular message today is
to tell people that they are good, that they are essentially
good, that some people fail and let themselves down, but essentially
man is good. That's a lie. There's no good
in man. There is none good. There is
none that seeketh after God. There is none righteous. No,
not one. We are totally depraved. That's
what Paul preaches in Romans with great plainness. of speech. He preaches plainly
our need for righteousness and the fact that the gospel's foundation
is the bringing in of the righteousness of God through the blood of Jesus
Christ upon the cross. That's our great need, that's
where salvation lies. Salvation is not in a decision. Salvation is not in coming to
Christ. Salvation is not in setting Christ
up as our Lord. Salvation essentially is founded
upon being made to be the righteousness of God in Christ. That's the
great need. Because we are unrighteous, we
will go to hell. But if God makes us to be righteous,
then we will be saved forevermore. And he will only make us to be
righteous in Christ. In Christ. So there is no righteousness
to be found unless you come to Christ. But we come to Christ
because we have a great need. for righteousness. Paul is playing
about the wrath to come and the judgment upon the sin of man.
He opens his gospel in Romans by speaking of the wrath of God
which burns from heaven above against all unrighteousness of
man. And he speaks of the eternal consequence of that unrighteousness. That left in that state, we will
go to hell. We will be judged. We will answer
for our sins. There's no two ways about it.
That's where we're heading, outside of Christ. Paul is playing about
our great need of salvation. We need salvation. We need to
be righteous. And he's playing about our utter
inability to save ourselves. Salvation is not something which
we can affect or to which we can contribute. We are lost. We are astray. We are floating
about in the waters of sin and death. And we need someone to
pluck us out. We cannot save ourselves. Salvation
is of the Lord. Paul's playing about our fallen
will. People speak of free will. They
speak of a God who wouldn't force the will of man. A God who stands
by and waits for men to make a decision. And in so doing they
make man to be sovereign. They put man upon a throne, that
there's a helpless God sat alongside, waiting for them to make the
final decision. And when man chooses to accept
God, chooses to have mercy upon this God that stands alongside
helpless, then man saves himself. Essentially that's what free
will boils down to. in the way it's presented. They
may say, oh no, they may say, oh no, Christ had to die. Oh
no, God has to do so much. But ultimately it boils down
to that final decision. Then it's that which is the ultimate
power, not the gospel. They have a gospel which is not
the power of God, but they have a gospel that's the power of
man in man's free will. What's your gospel? Paul is playing
that man's will, it's fallen. And we'll always reject God. You have always rejected God. But in the gospel, God says that
my people, my people shall be made willing in the day of my
power. When I come unto them in my gospel
by grace, I will change their will and cause them to cry out
unto me for mercy, and I will have mercy upon whom I will have
mercy. Paul is playing about our filthy
works of self-righteousness. Do you think that you can please
God by living right? Well, God says of your works
of righteousness that they are like filthy rags. Jeremiah says
it, the Word of God says it, there are filthy rags. That's
the gospel Paul preached, that's the gospel we preach, we're plain
about it. Even your best deeds are full
of sin. Then how do you seek to please
God by your works? You cannot. Paul's plain that
only God can save. And he's playing about where
that salvation stands in the death of Christ alone, in his
particular redemption of his own people for whom he died. He's playing about Christ's death
and its extent, what he did when he died, and for whom he died. He came to die for his people. He took that people to the cross. He bore that people's sins. He was made sin for them. He bore their sins in particular
and He took the judgment and wrath of God and drank it up
for them. Did He drink it for you? Did He? Did He look in grace
upon you and take your sins and take the wrath of God against
your sins? and say you will not undergo
this because I love you and I will deliver you because I love you
and I have loved you forever and I will love you forever and
you will not undergo what I am undergoing for you because I
will deliver you from it. I will lay down my life that
you may live. Did he say that of you? Paul is playing about God's eternal
sovereign purpose and decrees that God determined to save his
people from eternity. They were chosen in Christ, they
were known about, they were named, they were in him before ever
the world was made and created. God knew for whom Christ would
die. And when those people in time
are born, born of Adam, they are simply born in this world
awaiting that day when they will hear the gospel of grace and
know what Christ did for them at the cross. God saves his own
and he does it sovereignly. Paul's plain about election,
plain about electing grace. He's plain about the gospel and
plain about our great need of that gospel. Do you know your
need? Do you? Great plainness of speech. And Paul is plain as he makes
plain in this chapter. about the total contrast between
Law and Grace, between the Old Covenant and the New, between
the Letter and the Spirit. The total contrast. There was a glory under the Old
Covenant but there's a glory which excels, which eclipses
it. It's gone. that old covenant
is gone if you're under the new covenant that old covenant has
no more to say to you it met its fulfillment in christ he
brought in the righteousness it demanded by his blood upon
the cross you have no need of any righteousness outside of
him it's all yours in him there's a total contrast and a total
contrast between the preaching of the letter and the preaching
of the Spirit. Oh, there's a glory in the Old
Covenant. and that's why it deceived so
many. It seemed so glorious and it is glorious, it was glorious,
the priesthood was glorious, the temple was glorious, the
rituals were glorious, the sacrifices were glorious, the people looked
on and wondered and they knew the presence and the power of
God. But none of that outwardly ever led any soul unto glory,
unto life. They were dead under it. It slew
them. It was the letter and the letter
killeth. But it was a picture. of the
gospel, a picture of the new covenant, a picture of the new
testament, a picture of that glory which exceleth, there is
a glory which excels, a glory which fulfills all that the Lord
demanded, all the types and pictures and images, all that priesthood,
all those sacrifices, all pointed unto Christ, our great High Priest,
our one sacrifice for sins forever. Christ our Temple, Christ our
Saviour, Christ our Mercy Seat, Christ our Righteousness, the
Righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. He is all to his people. And the glory of Christ in the
gospel eclipses all else. You cannot mix. You cannot take
of the old and mix with the new. You'll just bring it all back
down to the letter. It's eclipsed, it's gone. Has
it gone for you? You need to have your eyes open
to see. And that was the Jews' problem.
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. Is the veil still on your
heart? Do you still approach the gospel? Do you still approach the scriptures? Do you still approach salvation? Do you still approach Christ
with a veil upon your heart? Reading the scriptures and only
seeing the letter, reading the scriptures and only seeing what
you must do, reading the scriptures and only seeing a rule of life
set on the law. Have you had your eyes opened? to see that all is in Christ
and the veil is done away in Christ and the righteousness
that that Lord demanded is fulfilled in Christ. There's nothing for
you to do. It's all been done. Are you? Are you blind to these things? Or has the spirit of God opened
your eyes? Even when these people had the
gospel preached to them, they remained blind. Are you blind? Have you heard, but not heard? Have you seen, but never seen? Are you still blind? Or has God
taken the veil away? The veil. When Christ died, the
veil of the temple was rent in two from top to bottom. The old
covenant was gone. And a way was made into the holy
of holies, into the very presence of God, by the blood of Jesus
Christ, which was shed for many. as a remission of their sins,
the blood of Christ. the blood which made a way into
the Holy of Holies, the blood which brought in the righteousness
of God, the blood which was shed by the sovereign decree of God,
outside of the will or the works of that people. They had no part
to play in it. God sent His Son, God shed His
blood, God wrought salvation, and God said, I will save them
with an everlasting salvation. Did He save you? Was the blood
shed for you? Has the veil been rent for you? Has a way into the presence of
Almighty God, God the Father, been made for you? Has the Spirit
of God taken you by the gospel, taken you by the hand, and led
you on blood-sprinkled ground unto the Father, unto God, and
said, all is well? Peace has been made. You are
forgiven. You are mine, as he's spoken
unto you plainly, and put hope in your heart of everlasting
glory. For if he has, if he's taken
that blood and sprinkled it upon your heart, If he's put faith
in your heart to look and to turn from the blindness of that
veiled old covenant and to look unto Christ alone, then you will
say with Paul, seeing them that we have such hope. We use great
plainness of speech. Seeing them that we have such
hope. we use great plainness of speech. Amen.