Well, the privilege is absolutely
mine. I was thinking as I sat over there a moment ago, I thought
of a passage of scripture in Acts chapter 11. It says, Now
they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose
about Stephen, the disciples, the preachers of that day, they
were scattered. They traveled as far as Phineas
and Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the word. to none but unto the
Jews only, and some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which,
when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching
the Lord Jesus." That's what we preach, the Lord Jesus. And
it says in verse 21, "...and the hand of the Lord was with
them." That's what we read this morning, wasn't it? Lord, who
shall I say sent me? I am. Who am I, Lord, that I
should go? I'll go with you, was the answer.
Not anything about Moses. The answer to the question didn't
have anything to do with Moses. Who am I, Lord, that I should
go? I'm going with you. I sent you. And the hand of the
Lord was with them. And so they went. And it says
there, and a great number believed. And that's why. Because the Lord
was in it. And turned unto the Lord. That's the Lord's doing,
too. And then it says, Then tidings
of these things came unto the ears of the church which was
in Jerusalem, and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as
far as Antioch. Who, when he came and had seen
the grace of God, was glad? How do you see the grace of God? I'll tell you how. He came there
and he saw the people of God. And he said, look what God has
done. He heard the gospel that they preached. And he said, this
is God's grace that has done this. That the angels will see
the grace of God and sing about it in his people, won't they?
Throughout endless ages, they'll look at us and they'll say, worthy
is the lamb. That's how you see God's grace
in what he's done for sinners and in the message of his son.
Well, and the reason I thought of that is when I came here,
I saw what they saw, what Barnabas saw there in Antioch. And I was
glad, too. I was glad. I'm glad when I see
God's grace upon his people. It's a blessing to my heart,
and I know it is yours. You enjoy God's grace here. You
have a man that has the Lord with him that preaches the gospel
to you. Well, turn if you would with
me to 2 Corinthians chapter 3. We've sung about it tonight.
Not what these hands have done can save my guilty soul. Not
what this toiling flesh hath borne can make my spirit whole. Thy work alone, my Savior, can
lift this weight of sin. That's pretty much what I'll
preach tonight, if the Lord is gracious to to meet with us. We sang it in that other song
too, God forbid that I should glory. Paul said, God forbid
that I should glory save in the death, the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. In other words, God don't allow
me to glory in what I've done, but in what he did. His cross
work. And that's what the message of
2 Corinthians chapter 3 is. And I have forgotten to turn
this on, so I'm going to do that now. 2 Corinthians 3. We'll start with
verse 5. Paul said, 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
covenant." Now that word able there, first of all, notice that
he didn't find some able ministers. They sing the song in religion,
God looking for a few good men. Well, he's going to be looking
a long time if that's what he's looking for. He didn't find some
able men, he made some. And the word able there doesn't
really speak of any qualification whatsoever in the minister. The
word means equipped. It means we've got what we need.
He has well equipped us to preach the gospel. We have his message. We have his message. And if we
don't have anything but that, what else do we need? What did
he tell us to do in the Great Commission? Go and preach. We have a message to preach.
We're able, aren't we? We're equipped. We have what we need.
From God, from the Lord Jesus Christ, we have his ministers. That word means servants. It
literally means waiters. It means somebody who's serving
the table, serving the food. We didn't make the food. We don't
add anything to the food or take anything away or say, well, they
may not like that. I won't put that out there. We
take his bounty and lay it out for you. Are you hungry? If you
are, you'll come and eat. If not, you won't. But what's
our business? We're just the waiter. We're
just the waiter. Now, he said, we're able ministers
of the new covenant, not of the letter. That's strong contrast
there. Not one thing, but absolutely
the other thing. Not of the letter, but of the
spirit. For the letter killeth. That's
why we're not ministers of it. I don't have to stand up here
and tell you That if you'll do something for God, God will do
something for you. That's death for you. That's
hopelessness for you. The letter killeth. It always
has, and it always will. But of the Spirit, the Spirit
giveth life. What did the Lord say? The flesh
profiteth nothing. But the spirit, the words that
I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. The flesh,
the deeds of the flesh, the keeping of the law, the flesh profiteth
nothing but the gospel, the very words of life itself. But if
the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, that's
why he calls it the letter, because it's written. It's written. This
is the letter. He told those Pharisees, you
search the Scriptures, you know the letter, you understand, you
see the letter, and you have the letter, and you boast in
your knowledge of the letter. But the letter speaks of him
who is the Spirit. They are they which testify of
me, and you will not come to me that you might have life. But if the ministration of death,
the letter, written and engraved 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? 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 excelleth." That's the title of the message tonight, and I
pray the Lord will give me grace that without him I will not have,
to speak to you of the glory that excelleth. Paul, obviously here, well, I
say obviously. If the Lord teaches us something,
it will be obvious to us. He's contrasting the two covenants,
the old and the new. He calls the old Mosaic covenant
the letter because it consisted in God's written law and his
command to obey that which was written. It's written and engraven
in stones, it says in verse 6. And Paul clearly and bluntly
says we do not preach the letter. We are not ministers of the law.
Does that mean we avoid mentioning the law? Of course not. The law
is the schoolmaster. that drives us to Christ. But
the law does now what it has always done. It kills. Paul said,
I was alive without the law once. I thought I was doing pretty
good, you know. I had it hanging on my wall, you know, like everybody
does. And I checked, oh, I haven't killed anybody today, and I haven't
committed adultery, and I'm doing pretty good. But then he said
the commandment came to my heart. I realized what God was saying
in that law. and sin revived. I realized what
I was before God and I died. All my hope of pleasing God,
all my hope of having acceptance with God by the deeds of the
law perished on that day. That's what Paul said. Alright,
we do not preach the law. Why not? And I'm always amazed
and rejoiced in how relevant The gospel is timeless indeed.
There are those tonight, as we sit here, that would have us
preach law. There was a woman in Texas that
attended the worship where I was there with Jack Shanks for many,
many years. And this woman attended the worship
there for, I guess, 15 some odd years at least. And we had fellowship
with her and her husband and believed that they loved the
gospel to all outward appearances and evidence She loved the gospel
of Christ, and then one day her husband fell into great sin,
and just unmentionable, grievous sin. And that dear lady blamed
Jack and myself and said, if you had preached more law, my
husband would not have fallen into sin. She did this to Jack's
face, and he told me later that I was implicated also in that.
If we had just preached the law, it would have constrained him. No, it wouldn't have done that. The law has never done that,
and it never will. Why don't we preach the law? Why don't we preach at least
a little bit of law so we'll all be in line and won't fall
into sin? Well, Paul here says that that
law is glorious, and it was. It's wonderful. God wrote his
will on tablets of stone. He didn't have to do that. He
didn't have to express his will to sinners. He could have just
done with us what ought to have been done with us, what we deserved.
And he'd have been righteous to do so, just. But God wrote
his will, his moral standard, an expression of his holiness
on rock, and gave them to man. And the circumstances of the
giving of that law, They were accompanied by a revelation
of God's glory, a manifestation of his greatness. When Moses
came back down from speaking with God, the folks couldn't
even look at Moses' face because it shone so brightly with the
reflected glory of God. Just from being in the presence
of God, his glory shone from his face. It was glorious, the
display of God's thundering justice. had a glory about it, no question. The outward obedience to that
law was glorious in all of the pictures and types of Christ
that were daily put on display. The law is full of pictures and
types and ceremonies that set forth and exalt the Lord Jesus
Christ. When God took Moses up into that
mountain and said, Thou shalt and thou shalt not, when he gave
him the Ten Commandments, he said, OK, I want you to make
a mercy seat. And when you break my law, here's
what you do. The law points to Christ, and God has always had
the same message to sinners. The law never has been a means
whereby, it was by faith that Abel offered a more excellent
sacrifice than Cain. And these folks, they weren't
justified by the law. The blood of bulls and goats
could never, never take away sin, and they knew that then.
They knew that then. It was by faith in Christ that
they worshiped God. It always has been that way.
And so it was glorious, wasn't it? In the pictures, in the displays,
in the daily displays. Every day blood was shed and
sinners could see in vivid terms that the wages of sin is death.
And they could see by that that the only way God can be approached,
they understood at least mentally, it was right there in their face
every day. that God demands justice for
sin. And the sinners, they had a visual
testimony every day that God can only be approached, worshipped,
pleased by the blood, the death of an innocent victim, dying
in the stead of the sinner. Every day they had that unmistakably
displayed before. Glorious! Yes, it was glorious.
It was glorious. Exodus 15, 11, who is like unto
thee, O Lord, among the gods? They could see that in the law.
They could say that. Who is like unto thee? Glorious
in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. Who is like unto thee? God is
glorious in holiness, which is displayed in the giving of his
law and in the outward obedience to that law. But there's a problem. There's a problem in this for
us. And this is the first answer
to our question. Why don't we preach the law? Because, glorious though it was,
and Paul said, I delight in the law of God after the inward man. And people talk about God's ceremonial
law and God's moral law and the Levitical law and the Mosaic
law. God just has one law. The law is the word, the testimony. It's everything God says. And
here, specifically, is that old covenant that God gave to his people,
the nation of Israel, the earthly nation of Israel. And in that
outward obedience, Christ was displayed, and it was glorious. But here's the problem. God's
law, in itself, gives a sinner no hope whatsoever. No hope. Romans 3.20, Therefore by the
deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his
sight. That sounds hopeless to me, doesn't
it? No flesh justified. That's bad news, because we've
got to be justified if we're going to have anything to do
with God other than his wrath falling on our heads. No flesh
justified. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin, and that's all that the law can do for us in relation
to sin, is make us knowledgeable of it. That's it. That's it. That's what it does.
We could preach more law, and presumably, you know, the presumption
is at least that we would be more outwardly moral if we preached
law. You know, you've got to keep
people in line now, you know. If I studied on how to identify
and combat the sins of the flesh, you know, and dealt with that
every time I got up, I could talk to you about how to ward
off the devil. The last time I found myself in the unhappy
circumstance of listening to a preacher that didn't know the
gospel, that's what I heard about, how to ward off the devil. He
talked about Satan for 45 minutes and never mentioned Christ. That's
what the law will do. Not having heard anything, any
hope for sinners, none whatsoever. But we could do that. But even
if we did, even if it had that effect, if it made us more moral,
if it caused us to become outwardly more moral, what would we be? Where would that leave us? We'd
be a bunch of Pharisees, wouldn't we? That's what we are by nature
anyway. Oh, we'd love that. The flesh
would eat that up. Because that's what we are. That's
why people love to be told what not to do and what to do. Give
me something to do. Name it, if he'd have given you
some great thing to do, you'd have done it. You'd have done
it. And we will. But where would
that leave us? We'd be self-righteous, goody-two-shoes,
holier-than-thou, Christless, hell-bound, hopeless sinners.
That's what we'd be. But you know, the law doesn't
even do that. It can't even make you outwardly more moral. It
can make you think you are. Turn to Matthew chapter 23. This
is what we would be. Verse 24. You blind guides, which
strain out a gnat and swallow a camel, woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you make clean the outside
of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion
and excess. You blind Pharisee, cleanse first
that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside
of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites." I believe it was your pastor that wrote an article
not long ago on dealing with the symptoms of the problem. and not dealing with the problem.
That's what they did. They put band-aids on it and
covered it up and made it pretty, put makeup on over the scars. You hypocrites, woe unto you. Verse 27, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for you are like unto whited sepulchers, coffins,
graves, which indeed appear beautiful outward but are within full of
dead men's bones." Full of it. And of all uncleanness. There's
not any room for anything? You're full of it. Of all uncleanness. All uncleanness. Now, "...even
so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men." Oh, you see, there's
the key right there. The truth is, the law doesn't
make us more moral. It just makes us better at hiding
our sin. That's all it does. It makes
us experts at appearing moral. But within you are full of hypocrisy
and iniquity. Now, why does something good,
the law is good. We confess, Paul said in Romans
7, that the law is good and right and just. Why does something
good result in such a bad thing, wickedness? Well, it's not the
law that's wicked. In Romans 8, the first few verses,
what the law could not do. in that it was weak through the
flesh. Ah, there's the key. The law can't do some things. So one thing in particular. Why? Because it's weak through the
flesh. It's not the law that's weak. It's not the law that's
lacking. It's you. And the law, the covenant of
law was a conditional covenant that the conditions depended
upon your obedience. So the law can't do what some
people think it can do. Why? Because of your flesh. Because
of you. Because of your inability to
live up to it. 1 Timothy 1. Let me read this to you. 1 Timothy
1.5. Now the end of the commandment
is love out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and
of faith unfeigned, from which some, having swerved, have turned
aside into vain jangling, desiring to be teachers of the law. Understanding
neither what they say nor whereof they affirm. Desiring to be teachers
of the law because they say, all right, this is God's will
for you, thou shalt, thou shalt not, thou shalt, and this is,
if you do and don't do, then God will be pleased with you.
They don't have any idea what they're saying. No idea. Or whereof
they affirm. But we know that the law is good
if, well, the law is always good In and of itself, it's the expression
of God's character. But he's saying the law is good
for us if a man use it lawfully. So why does a good, holy, just,
perfect law result in an evil thing? Because of the way it's
used. That's why. The way you use it
and I use it. It's us that are wicked and vile. Knowing this, if a man use it
lawfully, knowing. Don't miss that. By the law is
what? The knowledge of sin. How do
you use the law lawfully? Knowing this. If the law makes
you know this, then you've used the law, by God's grace, lawfully. that the law is not made for
a righteous man. It's not made for somebody that
is righteous. It's not made to make somebody righteous. But
for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners,
listen to this description of us now. He talked about the Pharisees
a while ago and said you're full of all manner of uncleanness. That's what he's saying here,
and he's describing some of it here, isn't he? For unholy and
profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for
manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves
with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons. Is he saying now that the law
condemns all these different kinds of people? Murderers of
fathers over here and murderers of mothers over here. Now, remember
what he said to the Pharisees. You are full of all uncleanness. These are not different types
of people. These are all you. Every one of them. And me. And if there be any other thing,
Paul said here, that I've left out that is contrary to sound
doctrine. And he said, now look at the
context here. He said the law to be used lawfully is to know
this. And this is verse 11. according
to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed
to my trust. According to my good news? I
didn't hear much good news in what Paul said there, did you?
Oh, but he's not done. You see, in order to know the
good news and understand the good news, you've got to hear
the bad news first, don't you? The bad news. The lawful use
of the law is not to use it as a basis for which to attain righteousness
before God, but to use the law to know that you are before God a lying,
defiled, whoremongering murderer, among other things. And I am
too. If the law causes you to know
that and confess that and bow to that truth and acknowledge
it before God, own your sin before God, then you have used the law
lawfully. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. Romans 3.19. We know that whatsoever
things the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law,
that every amount... Why does it say it? So that we'll
know how to act? So that we can put it on our
wall, you know, and try to live up to it every day? No. So you'll
shut up about your law keeping. That's why it says what it says.
To shut me up. That's why he gave it. To shut
us up. It says what it says to us, that
every mouth may be stopped. And in the case of his people,
it accomplishes that. Paul said, I died. I died. And here it is. And why else? That all the world may become
guilty. If the law has caused you to
become guilty before God, then you've used it lawfully by God's
grace, because you won't unless he has mercy on you. Oh my, my
mouth is stopped and I praise His grace forever that He has
shut me up about what I've done. Paul said, not having mine own
righteousness, I wouldn't have it. I would not step before God
for three seconds with it. I would not offer up my filthy
rags to God for anything. Why? Because He broke me and
showed me His law and His spiritual truth. and how guilty I am before
it. And he showed me how that law
can be honored, glorified, kept, preserved, and he can still save
me. He can still save me. When the
law is used unlawfully, the result is self-righteous presumption
and pride and hypocrisy. What is the result of the lawful
use of the law. In Galatians 3.22, the scripture
hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of
Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were
kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards
be revealed. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster. to bring us unto Christ that
we might be justified, not by law, not by what we've done,
but by faith in him who did honor God's law. Did you see the promise
by faith of Jesus Christ there in verse 22? That word is the
faithfulness of Jesus Christ. The faithfulness of Jesus Christ.
The promise. We receive the promise and the
blessings of this new covenant of the grace of God in Christ
Not by what we've done, but by what He did. There's the difference. So we are not ministers of the
law. What the law could not do is
the one thing that must be done for me. You see, the law cannot
make me righteous, and I've got to be righteous so I can't find
any hope in the law. But what the law could not do
and that it was weak through the flesh, God sent His Son down
here to do. God sending His Son in the likeness
of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. Christ
did for me what the law could not do for me. He made me righteous. The very righteousness of God
in Him. The second reason that we are
not ministers of the law, of the letter. That is why we do
not preach law. There's another good reason,
and I'll be through. It's because we have something
infinitely better to preach. Why in the world would I preach
to you? Do this and do that and do the other thing, when I can
preach to you something so much better than that. We are made able ministers, equipped
ministers of the Spirit, not the letter. Call the minister
of the Spirit here because whereas in the old the law was engraved
on tables of stone, but in this ministry of the gospel, the word
of God, the gospel, the truth is engraved upon the heart of
the sinner. Turn to Hebrews chapter 8 with
me. I'll try to be brief. Hebrews 8 and verse 6. But now hath he, Christ, obtained
a more excellent ministry, and that's the ministry that we have,
the ministry of the Spirit. That's what Paul's talking about
here. Not of the letter. By how much also he is the mediator
of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. Oh, that law was glory. The promise
that God gave it is perfect. He's not saying better intrinsically. He's saying this promise is better
for me. It's better for me. For if that
first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been
sought for the second. So it's not faultless. There's
a fault in it. And again, it's not in the law
itself, it's in you. The problem, we'll see that in
a minute. For finding fault with him, verse 8, he saith, Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord, when I'll make a new covenant
with the house of Israel. Not this do and live, this do
and I'll bless you, and this don't do and I'll curse you.
No, this is a different covenant, this is a new covenant, a better
covenant, established upon better promises. Not according, verse 9, to the
covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took
them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. All
right, now look at this. He said this covenant is not
like that one. In what way? Read the next clause. Because they continued not in
my covenant. Any covenant that God gives that's
contingent upon our obedience, we're goners. And I regarded
them not, saith the Lord. This covenant is different. They
continued not in that one, but how is the new covenant better?
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws
into their mind and write them in their hearts. And I will be
to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. And they shall
not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying,
Know the Lord, for all shall know me." Whoever he makes this
covenant with, every one of them, he said, will know me. And they
won't know me by hearing it from their neighbor. Peter, flesh
and blood hath not revealed this unto you. But the one who said,
I'll put it into your mind and into your heart, that's who you
got it from. It's better. That's better for
me. Every one of them shall know
me from the least to the greatest. How can that be, Lord? I'm going
to be merciful to them. In what way is He merciful? By
causing us to know Him. This is life eternal that they
might know thee, and they shall all be taught of God. He has
mercy on us by coming where we are and revealing his Son in
us, causing us to know his Son. All shall know me from the least
to the greatest, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. No. It's not there, is it? I'm so glad. I will be merciful
to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more. Period. You see why David said
on his deathbed, this is all my hope, and all my salvation,
and all my desire. That though he passed my family
by, he made a covenant with me. He's not talking about that old
one when he said that. He's talking about that one right
there. I will be merciful. And your sins and your iniquities,
I will remember no more. And I will be your God. And you
shall be my people. You see how that's different
from the old one? And the old one, it was no good. Why? Because they continued nodding
it. In the new one, there's nothing for you to continue in or not
continue in. There's no condition put on it. And the old covenant, the new
covenant was revealed before the old covenant was revealed.
Did you know that? God made this covenant right here, this new
one with Abraham, before he gave the old one to Moses. God had
never saved a sinner any other way but by making that covenant
with him that he made with David centuries ago. Has he made it
with you? If he has, you'll say, that's
all my desire and all my salvation. All right. The law. This is a
sure hope now. Look at the way he words it here
in our text. If the ministration of condemnation
be glory, much more does the ministration of righteousness
exceed in glory. For even that which was made
righteous had no glory 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 not just hope, but such hope." What
hope! What a hope this is! When God
says, in blessing I will bless you, I'll bless you. No condition. And Paul said, seeing that we
have such a wonderful gospel to preach, we want to preach
it just as plain and clear as we can and stay out of the way
of it, don't we? Don't we, Bob? Oh, my. We've got something better to
say. That's why we don't say what Paul said we don't say.
We don't preach the letter. We have something that excels
in glory. We have something that is the
very glory of God revealed. to sinners. Show me your glory,
Lord, and I'll have mercy. I'll put your feet on a rock,
and I'll show you how I can be merciful to whom I will be merciful."
You want to see God's glory? You know where you'll see it,
don't you? God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness
has shined in my black, wicked heart to give the light of the
knowledge, there's that word again, The knowledge of the glory
of God, where, in the face of a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where the glory of God
is revealed. Moses said later, or Paul said later in this chapter,
that when they read Moses, when they hear the word, that veil
is over their face. You're never going to see the
glory of God by the preaching of the letter. Never. That veil
will be there. But he said, we who know the
gospel with open face, no veil, we behold God's glory. We see
it in the face of his son by the preaching of his gospel.
The law leaves us with no hope, no flesh justified. But the gospel
message is this. God has loved us and given us
everlasting consolation and good hope. Not just I hope, I hope,
I hope. This is a good hope. Good hope,
how? Through grace, not through law,
not through obedience, not through doing anything, but through his
sovereign, free, effectual grace in Christ Jesus. That's how.
That's how he gave us hope. And he comforts your hearts and
establishes you in every good word and work. Not by law, but
by grace we have a good hope. The law renders us guilty, Romans
3.19. that every mouth may be stopped and all the world become
guilty, the gospel declares us justified. Being justified freely
by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus because
of who he is and what he did for us on that cross, and every
step he took in eternity, what he's always done for us because
of who he is and what he's done for us. were justified freely,
without a cause. That doesn't mean he didn't have
a reason for doing it. It just means there was no reason
in you for him to do it. Without a cause, that's what
freely means. By the law is the knowledge of sin. We read that
in Romans 3.20, but by the gospel is the knowledge of righteousness. Romans 321, the very righteousness
of God without the law is revealed, made known to you. How? In the
gospel. In the gospel you can know by
God's grace how you can have the very righteousness of God
without keeping the law. That's Christ. That's Christ.
The law reveals why God is against us. Because we are. By nature, the
carnal mind is enmity against God, and it reveals that, and
the reason why God—the gospel is the message of God with us.
Immanuel—I sometimes call his name Immanuel—which being interpreted
as God with us. And God's for us. If God be for
us, who can be against us? And he manifestly is for us. He foreknew us and predestinated
us and called us and justified us and glorified us. If he be
for us, who can be against us? Oh, if the one that on the footing
of law is against me, if he's for me, there is no against. Who can be? It's Christ that died. The law
demands your death. The wages of sin is death. The
gospel speaks of his death. We preach Christ and him what?
Crucified. The law demands your blood, but
the gospel is the message of that precious blood that John
talked about when he described him as he who loved us and washed
us from our sins in his own precious blood. That's who we preach,
and that's why we don't preach law. We've got something better,
my friends. You don't want to hear about
the law either, do you? Our brother prayed that. We don't want to
hear that. I don't either. The law says, here's what you
need to do. And they're saying that all over
this town tonight. Here's what you need to do to
be saved. The gospel says, here's what he did. Not what he would
do. No, not what would Jesus do,
what Jesus did do. That's the gospel, what he did
for sinners. The law is written on tables
of stone. The gospel is written on the
heart. Written on stone, you can read it, and you can know
it, you can understand it up here. Written on your heart,
you'll love it. Paul said, I delight in the law.
I can't keep it, but I can delight in it, in Christ. by the grace
of God in Christ. On stone, you will grudgingly
try to obey out of fear, like we talked about this morning.
And you'll think you've done a pretty good job, because we're
masters at justifying ourselves, aren't we? Oh yeah, we'll think
we've done pretty good. But if he ever writes it on your
heart, you'll want to obey. Paul said, the things that I
would do, I don't do them. But I would do them. I would
honor God, wouldn't you? But we'll realize every moment
of every day how far short we fall of doing that. How far short. And we'll look to Him who did
honor the law, who is our representative before God, who has kept the
law for us and paid for our not keeping it. That's what He did. You know what the law says? The
law says stone her. Stone her. In John chapter 8,
the passage just before we looked at what we looked at this morning,
the law says stone her. She's taken in adultery in the
very act. We've caught her. She's guilty.
She's condemned by God's law. Now stone her. You know what
the gospel says? Because of the gospel, God says to that sinful,
vile, wretched woman, I do not condemn you. Go free. We have something more glorious,
don't we, to preach. The law killeth. Why would we preach that? That
the Spirit, by the preaching of the gospel, giveth life. I'm
not ashamed of the gospel, because it's the power of God unto salvation. to everyone that believes. The
law is a moral standard. The gospel, and I'm still learning
this, and I pray that God will teach me this until the day I
die. And that someday I'll know it,
even as I am known. The gospel of the good news is
a person. It's not a system of doctrine.
It's not a creed. It's a person. Salvation, the
gospel of the good news, is a person. The Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
why Paul said we don't preach the letter, but we preach a person. That's what he said. We preach
Christ. We preach Christ. And him crucified,
what he did for sinners. Oh, it's more glorious, my friend.
If the ministration of condemnation be glory. And that's what it
is, a ministration of condemnation. What they're preaching all around
us. is a ministration of condemnation, but much more that the ministration
of righteousness. Therein is the righteousness
of God without the law revealed. The ministration of righteousness,
exceeding glory, for even that which was made glorious had no
glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth."
We don't need the picture now, we have the person. For if that
which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth
is glorious." We have such hope, and I pray by God's grace that
I can declare that hope with great plainness of speech. May
He be gracious to us. Amen.