Well, turn in your Bible with
me today to 2 Corinthians chapter 3, and I'm going to read the
first 11 verses in this chapter, and my text will be verse number
9. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Do we begin again to commend
ourselves? Or need we, as some others, epistles
of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? You
are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all
men. For as much as you 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 Godward, not that we are sufficient of
ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency
is of God, who also hath made us able ministers of the New
Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit. For the letter
killeth, but the spirit giveth life. But if the ministration
of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that
the children of God 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. I'm going to speak to us today
about two ministers. And I know both of these ministers. And I'm not going to say a bad
word about either of them, but I will say this, I do appreciate
much more the ministry of one of them than the other. Both of these ministers are extremely
learned men. And both of these ministers studied
at universities which were situated on top of a mountain. The first
one, I'm going to speak to us of these two ministers in the
chronological order in which I sit under their ministry. The first minister, his name
is Dr. Law. Dr. Law from the University of Mount
Sinai. As I said, I do not have a bad
word to say about either of these ministers. I know that the Apostle
Paul, who knew both of them very well himself, he spoke the truth
when he said this about Dr. Law. He said, the law is holy
and the commandment holy, just, and good. I found it hard, I'll
just be honest, I found it hard to sit under the ministry of
Dr. Law because his demeanor was
like what happened at the founding of the University of Mount Sinai. And by that, I mean that his
words seemed to sound in my ears like thunder and a loud sounding
of a trumpet. Every message that I heard him
bring filled me with fear. But it wasn't godly fear, it
was some kind of fear like a slavish fear that a servant would have
for a very hard, cruel master. It wasn't godly fear, it was
slavish fear. And I remember two words, I know
these well, two words that he seemed to use over and over and
over again. As long as I listened to him,
these two words seemed to be just part of every sentence that
he uttered. The two words were, thou shalt. Thou shalt. Now, he did vary
these. Sometimes he would say, thou
shalt not do. And sometimes he said, thou shalt
do. And I know this may sound strange
to some of you, but it seemed that those words, thou shalt
not do and thou shalt do, those words seemed to stir up in me
evil desires to do what He said thou shalt not do, and not to
do that which He said to do. That's strange, isn't it? But it's the truth. I speak the
truth. And I remember this. He seemed
to end every message, every lesson seemed to be ending with these
same words. And they were these. They were
found in Deuteronomy chapter 4 and verse 11. He would say,
hearken unto the statues and unto the judgments which I teach
you for to do them that thou might live. Every message, those
words were included. And I can still remember this
as well. that in every message he would
go over 12 curses, 12 curses that he would read from the book
of Numbers. And he would have us in the class
after each one say, Amen. Every time he would read a curse,
he would have us say, Amen, Amen. And that last one was this, the
12th curse that he had us to read and to recite. We soon didn't need to read,
we learned them by memory. And that last one was, cursed
be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And he would have us resound
with a loud amen. Cursed! Cursed, cursed be he
that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. Amen. Amen. One day, sitting under Dr. Law's ministry, one day I came
to realize this very important truth, that the curse, Dr. Law, would pronounce, read from
the word of God, from the law of God, and have us to say amen
to, that I was under that curse. I wasn't just saying amen. I was really, I came to acknowledge
that I was really, came to understand that I was really under that
curse. And when the law said, curse
it, and I said, amen, I was pronouncing a curse upon myself. I came to realize this was a
reality. This wasn't make-believe. This
was a truth, that I was actually under the curse of God's broken
law. And I knew what that curse was. It was death. Death, in the day
that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. That was a solemn day. It really
was. When I came to realize that this
curse was real. that this was God's curse upon
me because I was guilty, because I had failed to do. Now I knew,
but I realized it's not just knowing what the law says, but
it's doing. And I had failed to do what the
law commanded to do. And I had failed not to do what
the law commanded to do. The law commanded that I love
God with all my heart, all my soul, and all my being. And there
was a curse if I failed to do that. And I had failed. Not only had I failed, I failed
every day. I came to understand that that
curse was real, and that I was under the curse of God's broken
law, and the curse of that law was death. And I'm not speaking
just about physical death, other. I'm talking about eternal death. That is to be eternally separated
from God. Now every person here this morning,
all of us living in God's world, Let me just remind us of this,
that God's love is manifested and demonstrated in this world. Think about that. But eternal
death is to be in a place, in a circumstance, in a situation
when none, absolutely none of God's law will be manifested. is to be separated from God and
everything that is good, not for just a few years, but for
all eternity. How real this was under the curse
of God's law, the law that I had broken. And Dr. Law didn't seem
to care a whole lot about my feelings either, he just kept
right on preaching the same thing, ministering the same thing. Thou
shalt not do, thou shalt do. And cursed is everyone that continueth
not to do all things that are contained in the law. I gave thought to this as everyone
should, serious thought. We're not playing. We're not
here to play church. Serious thought to be under the
curse of God's broken law. As I gave thought to this, I
began to wonder. I began to wonder if this was
not Dr. Law's intention, if this wasn't
really his intention. Was he, was Dr. Law really trying
to teach me how that I might have life, or was he telling
me what I came to understand? For as many as are of the works
of the law are under the curse. Was that what his intention was
all along? Not to teach me and tell me how
I might have life, but to declare unto me that by the works of
the law I would always be under the curse of God. Was he really trying to teach
me how? How is possible that a sinner
like me might be just, might be declared righteous before
God? Was he trying to teach me how
I might do that? Or was he really just emphasizing
to me that by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified? Was that his intention all along? Was he really shutting me up,
forcing me into a corner where I would look out for another
teacher? Was that his intention all along? I said under this minister, Dr.
Law, and this is what I found to be true, no doubt about it. This is what I found to be true,
and this is what all men who sit under Dr. Law will find,
at least eventually, that under his ministry, I am condemned. His ministry is a ministry of
condemnation. Notice that in verse 9, our text,
2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 9. For if the ministration of
condemnation be glory. What ministration is he speaking
of? He's speaking of the ministration
of Moses, of the covenant that God gave through Moses to the
nation of Israel. When Moses came down from that
mountain after he'd been there for 40 days, his face was all
aglow. And the people couldn't look
on him. Moses didn't realize it, that his face was glowing,
but there was a glory placed upon Moses himself, the person
who received the law that God wrote on tables of stone. There
was a glory upon him and the people, Aaron and his brothers,
his friends, his neighbors, they couldn't look on Moses because
his face has such a glory. He had to cover his face so that
he might communicate with the nation of Israel. And what Paul
says that that ministration of condemnation, yes, there was
a glory about it, but it was a temporary glory. It was to
fade away. Just like that, that covenant,
that covenant that was given at Sinai. It was never intended
to last forever. God's purpose, God's plan, He
had another covenant, an everlasting covenant that would eventually
be revealed. But there was a glory, even though
it was a ministration of condemnation. The law condemned. condemned me, and I had to raise
my hands, and I had to say, I'm guilty. I'm guilty. You hear people sometimes, they
say, well, I'll tell you what I'm going to tell God. Let me
tell you, you're not going to tell God anything. God shuts the mouth of those
that he reveals Christ to. He shuts our mouth and we stop
blaming our parents and our neighbors and the preacher and the deacons
and the Sunday school teachers and all of those people that
have done us wrong and disappointed us and that's the reason I am
the way I am. No, the reason you are the way
you are is because you love sin. Because you came into this world
dead in trespasses and sins, that you walk according to the
course of the world, you live under the power of the prince
of evil. And that's what the Apostle Paul
declares to us in Ephesians chapter 2. I said under that ministry of
Dr. Law, and I found this to be true,
it was a ministration of condemnation. I was condemned, I was condemned,
and rightly so, because of my sin. The words of the hymn writer
expressed my life at that point when he wrote, I wandered on
in the darkness. Not a ray of light could I see,
and the thought filled my heart with sadness. There's no hope
for a sinner like me. That's when I heard this second
minister I want to speak to us about. His name is Dr. Grace from the University of
Mount Calvary. Dr. Grace. And forgive me for
jumping ahead of myself, but I want to answer a question I
know will be in everyone's mind. I ask it myself. How did I come to be under the
ministry of Dr. Grace? How did I ever come to
be under the ministry of Dr. Grace in the first place? If you had asked me that question
when I first met him, I may have answered, it was really by accident. It was quite an accident that
I came under the ministry of Dr. Grace. I wasn't looking for
Dr. Grace. I wasn't looking for a
new minister. It was quite by accident. But
listen, I've come to learn. It wasn't by accident at all. No, no. That God Almighty who
works all things after the counsel of His own will. From my birth
until the day I came under the ministry of Dr. Grace, God had
arranged things as they were, all leading to this point. When I would hear Dr. Grace, I would sit under his
ministry. God had determined before the
foundation of the world that there would be a day in which
he would cross my path with the gospel. And so that's how I came
to be under the ministry of Dr. Grace. It wasn't by accident
at all. It was all on purpose. God had
purposed this wonderful blessing before the foundation of the
world. Now I will say this about Dr.
Grace. He also seemed to take on the
demeanor of what happened at the founding of Mount, at the
University of Mount Calvary. And it's hard to put this into
words. I certainly do not mean, I do not want to imply that his
words sometimes also sounded like thunder, sometimes it sounded
like lightning, but even so, when his words sounded like lightning,
when it sounded like thunder, they came to me filled with compassion,
and with love and with mercy. But they did come. They were
firm. They were firm words. What I noticed first of all,
what I noticed first of all, and above everything else about
Dr. Grace's ministry, about his teaching,
is that he spoke about a person. he spoke about a person. And it was not just any person
that he spoke about, but he spoke about a person who is both God
and man. Dr. Grace, he declared to me
that this person who is both God and man, is the very embodiment
of grace. In fact, Dr. Grace told me that
he was rich beyond all measure, all ability to comprehend. Yet for our sakes, he became
poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich. He emphasized, Dr. Graystead,
he emphasized that in this person dwelt the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. I didn't understand that at first.
In fact, it took me a while before I came to understand exactly
what that meant. That though he was a man, a man,
bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, and yet at the same
time he was God Almighty. He is the eternal Son of God
who joined that body to himself that was prepared him by the
Holy Spirit. He was a real man and yet he
was fully God. I didn't understand at first
the importance of that, but Dr. Grace, he continued to emphasize
just how very important that is. Because, you see, it was
as a man that he obeyed God and suffered under the hands of God's
justice, and yet because he is God, his sufferings and his obedience
and his death satisfied God And that was declared by his resurrection
from the dead. Yes, he had fully, completely,
perfectly satisfied God, obeyed God's law, that law that Dr. Law preached all the time, thou
shalt not, thou shalt do. He satisfied it perfectly in
thought, in word, and in deed. And Dr. Grace, Speaking about
this person, he told us, thank God he told me, I heard it, I
don't know if anyone else heard it, but I'm so thankful I heard
it, that this person who is God, man, that he's a substitute. That he's a substitute. That
though he had no sin of his own, and yet he was made to be sin,
in order that I might be made, might be declared righteous before
God. He took my sin and his own, but
he died as a substitute, as a sin offering. And yes, he did satisfy
God almighty. Dr. Grace told us, and he told
us from the Bible, when I say Dr. Grace told us, I want you
to know he always quoted from the scripture. He told us that
this God-man was made a priest. And he was not like a priest
of the Aaronic priesthood, the priest that followed Aaron. They
were made priests because they were born into the family of
Aaron, of Levi. Oh no, he was of the tribe of
Judah, the kingly tribe. And he was made a priest by an
oath. You say, well, who swore? Who made that oath? And what
is that oath? Thou art a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. In other words, his priesthood
is unending. And as a priest, a priest is
to offer both gifts and sacrifices. That's what a priest is for.
A prophet comes from God to us. And yes, he is that prophet who
speaks to us the word of God, but a priest goes from us to
God, interceding, mediating with God. And he is that priest. And every priest, as I said,
is to offer gifts and sacrifices. This is found in Hebrews. You
know the scripture. The gifts that he offered His
obedience, his perfect obedience. But what would he sacrifice?
All those priests of old, they had found a bullet, they had
found a lamb, they had found some animal. But no, those animals,
the blood of those animals could not take away sin. No, he gave
himself, he offered himself a sacrifice for sin. What a wonderful day
that was when I heard Dr. Grace bring this truth out. And Dr. Grace emphasized, he
emphasized how this person, this person who is God-man, who is
a priest forever, who is the Savior, Jesus Christ, that he
saves sinners by grace. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. God used
Dr. Grace to cause me to see that
salvation is all of grace. that the grace of God, as the
Apostle Paul says in Titus, brings salvation. It doesn't offer salvation. It brings salvation. When the
grace of God comes to a chosen sinner, it brings salvation. When Christ comes, because he
is salvation. And Dr. Grace made it clear the
best he could, that this person delights in saving sinners. Oh, he's so lovely. He's so precious. He's so kind. He's so good to
sinners. He delights. He delights in mercy. He's full of grace. I also, and let me just briefly
touch on this, I also realized Dr. Grace, he spoke about a person,
always. Not any person either, right?
The person. The God-man. The one mediator
between God and man. He preached, he spoke about him. But he also, he spoke about a
covenant. A covenant. a contract, if you
please, an agreement. He called it a covenant of grace,
in fact, although in the scripture I see it's called an everlasting
covenant. And this covenant was ratified
by the blood of Jesus Christ himself. And all the benefits,
just like a man's last will and testament, when the testator
dies, Then the administrator of the will, he makes sure that
all the stipulations in the will are given out as it is recorded. And the Lord Jesus Christ died,
shed his blood to seal the covenant, the covenant of grace. But he
didn't stay dead. He arose. And not only did he
arise, but as a gift, because of his obedience, the Holy Spirit
was given. And the Holy Spirit is here in
this world, and he's calling out and bringing his sheep to
the shepherd. Now I said a minute ago that
I experienced these words of the hymn writer, When I sat under
Dr. Law's ministry, oh, they were
my testimony. I wandered on in the darkness. Not a ray of light could I see. And the thought filled my heart
with sadness. There's no hope for a sinner
like me. But let me tell you something.
After sitting under the ministry of Dr. Grace, the rest of the words of that
hymn came to be my testimony. In that dark, lonely hour, a
voice sweetly whispered to me, saying, Christ, the Redeemer,
has power to save a sinner like thee. I listened, and lo, it
was the Savior who was kindly speaking to me. I cried, I'm
the chief of sinners. Oh, save a poor sinner like me. I then fully trusted in Jesus,
and oh, what a joy came to me. My heart was filled with his
praises for saving a sinner like me. And when life's journey's
over, and I, my dear Savior, shall see, I'll praise Him forever
and ever for saving a sinner like me. Yes, if you notice the
second part of the text. For if the ministration of condemnation
be glory, that is the ministration of the law that condemned me, had no glory in this respect. No glory in this respect. In
other words, it's kind of like, let me try to illustrate it.
If you have one of these little birthday cake candles, and you
had it lighted, and it was given some light, and then you walk
out there in the sunlight at 12 noon, that little old candle
light, not much to it, is it? And the glory of that law was
like that little candle. But the glory of the gospel of
Jesus Christ, it far excels, it far exceeds, so that that
glory vanishes away. I've sat under Dr. Grace's ministry
now for some time, and this is what I've found to be true. I found, notice the second part
of our text, I found that his ministration is one of righteousness. Do you see that? For if the ministration
of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of
righteousness. How may I be righteous before
God? You see the glory? How a sinner
like you and like me, a holy God, and he is absolutely holy,
how he can declare someone like us to be righteous. It is through the righteousness
of his son. that is imputed, as Paul says
in Romans chapter 3, even the righteousness of God, which is
by faith, by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ unto all and
upon all them that believe. I pray, I pray. As I said at the beginning, I
would not say a bad word about Dr. Law. He showed me my need. There's no doubt about it. But
I'm so thankful for Dr. Grace. And if you've never sat under
his ministry, if you've never believed what he has to say,
I pray that you will come to do so and you will rest in Christ. You will lean. That's the word
trust that has that meaning of leaning. Just like I can lean
on this pulpit. Now, if there was a little piece
of paper over here, standing up, and if I leaned myself on
it, I'd go flat to the ground. Christ is a Savior that you may
lean on and be saved, be secure, be accepted. by God. Isn't that a wonderful thing?
I pray God will bless this message. We're going to sing that hymn
number