With glory, in glory

Good morning. We'll be returning to our study of 2 Corinthians chapter 3. We had Palm Sunday and Resurrection Sunday the last couple of weeks, so we introduced this chapter studying the first six verses just three weeks ago, and so we'll be resuming that.

Before we do that, but first, I just want to kind of bring up one point as Courtney had introduced a Bible study here. Just one of the things that I wanted to let people know about what's taking place, because frequently, unless we bring attention to these things, they don't get known. The elders will typically meet Tuesday afternoons, typically weekly, although sometimes schedules don't allow that. But one of the things, and I think recently I've heard a few people have been surprised to find out, will actually spend a fair amount of time, and it varies, talking about different passages, different doctrinal issues, and actually comb over those things. And one of the things that we're intent on doing is to look at the Scripture and make sure that we're saying the same thing, make sure that we understand Scripture consistently. And you'll see that reflected in, of course, our doctrinal statement, but also from time to time we'll post something on the church website to kind of document that we've talked through a particular doctrinal subject or passage.

And additionally, I have that available as a supplement as well. So anyway, just something I wanted to let you know, because from time to time we'll get a remark that, oh, I didn't know that was happening. So anyway, guess what? It's happening. OK? All right.

In 2 Corinthians 3, The law is portrayed, especially as you get into the first few verses on almost to the end of the chapter, the law is portrayed by Moses on Mount Sinai and with coming down with the Ten Commandments, the tablets of stone. Even in Deuteronomy 4, which we have here on the screen, here is Moses looking back at that time on Mount Sinai And speaking to the Israelites, he says in verse 11 in Deuteronomy 4, You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the very heart of the heavens.

Darkness, cloud, and thick gloom. Then the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but you saw no form, only a voice." You imagine this, here's this mountain, and this darkness and thick gloom, and all of a sudden this voice, but nothing else, comes booming out of the clouds.

That must have been quite an event, and we'll take a look at more about what that might have looked like, like right now. As the Lord gave Moses the Ten Commandments, some scene kind of similar to what you see on the screen was playing out for the Israelites as they looked up on the mountain and flashes, thunder, darkness, but also flashes of light and lightning or what's described there. And so this little graphic here might give us an indication of what they might have saw and experienced as they heard finally towards the end the Lord speak. And during the day that event might have looked like this. And no matter how you count it, an awesome time and an awesome event. So that's the context that Paul is talking about here when we talk about Moses on Mount Sinai and the giving of the law.

That's, with a sort of a graphical assistance, that's what Paul is talking about here from verse 3 on into about verse 17. of this third chapter, of this second letter to the Corinthians, it presents that law as begun by the Ten Commandments. You see, the Ten Commandments were not the whole law, but they were definitely a part of it, and they were, if you will, a down payment. The rest of the law was yet to be revealed. The Ten Commandments were revealed by the tablets of stone with letters engraved on the tablets. The account, as you have it on your handout as well, is given in Exodus 19, 24, 31, and 34. An awesome site and an awesome event. Now, there are some who teach that we in the church are still under the Ten Commandments. As I was reading one author last night, just nine. And I'm not sure how they picked that.

But anyway, it is true that the New Testament quotes most of the Ten Commandments. It doesn't quote about the Sabbath, but it does make reference to it. And that's true. We gave, when we talked last time, three reasons why those New Testament quotes are made of the Ten Commandments. And they fall like this. In the Gospels, you will find the Ten Commandments, not all of them, but some quotes of them, because Jesus had the place of bringing the Jews back to the original law versus all the different traditions that they had come to add to it. Additionally, as you get into the New Testament, there are principles that come from the Ten Commandments.

They, in fact, are inspired by God. They are a part of Scripture. Are they not? All Scripture is inspired by God, including the Ten Commandments, and profitable for teaching, etc. So the Ten Commandments, being a part of Scripture, are quoted in the New Testament in the letters because there are principles, truths, that come from those commandments that we are intended to learn from.

Some will teach that the Spirit enables us to live out the law. And some of the reasons for that, as people will read in the Old Testament, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel are the three books that promise the Jews that they will have the Holy Spirit one day, and specifically the Jews. They will have the Holy Spirit to be able to live out the law. While we have the Holy Spirit now, It's not to live out the law and what's interesting is I have a quote here from Jeremiah 31 verse 31 through verse 34 is the particular complete passage, but what's interesting is that specifically for Israel and what is different from even what we're doing right here today is it says when the Jews have the Holy Spirit and They will be able to live out the law, and they will not even need a teacher to teach one another. They will know it, all of them, everyone, from the heart. So the promise to the Jews is different. Now, God's Word does not say that we have the Holy Spirit to live out the law, and I'm not speaking off the top of my head.

Romans 7.4 says exactly that when Christ died, one of the many things that took place was that we were made to actually die to the law. What does that mean? To die in relationship to the law.

That's stated again in Galatians 2.19 where Paul says it in first person. I died to the law. I died in relationship to the law. When Christ died on the cross, He died for several different reasons. We address those reasons on the Good Friday service. But one of those purposes was that we here in the church, from the time of Acts 2 until the time when the Lord comes to take us home, we died in relationship to the law in terms of its having any power or effectiveness or call upon our lives.

Now, here in this chapter, one of the things that we see is a reference to letters engraved on stones. Verse 3 that we studied three Sundays ago made reference to tablets of stone. Verse 7 here in today's passage that Courtney introduced for us makes reference to letters on stone.

The Greek words here in the New Testament for tablets and stone that Paul used in this very passage are taken from the Greek Old Testament version of the account of God with Moses on Mount Sinai in Exodus. He is specifically talking about that event, the tablets of stone, the letters on stone. Paul is even using the exact same words that are used in the Greek Old Testament to make sure that we understand that. The tablets were the tablets on which God himself engraved the Ten Commandments. See, Moses didn't write it down on tablets. God himself put the Ten Commandments on stone. Now, you have a chart like this. Wow. Should take up half a page on page one, right? About in the middle. Let's step our way through it and get the idea. This conveyance of the law to Israel by Moses was given physically. It was here were letters engraved on stone.

In the church, Christ and through grace, however, is certainly we have God's revealed work and it doesn't make what was written there and given to Moses any less a part of God's work, but specifically This is a spiritual conveyance. In other words, we have received these things by God's direct spiritual action and they are carried out in our lives by God's direct spiritual action.

The next difference there is the means. The means of giving us things is on these tablets of stone. That's what's spelled out there in this passage. Romans 2-8 explains the spiritual principles behind that in greater detail. The means for us living out what God intends is by the Holy Spirit. And that's something interesting. As you look through this entire chapter, the Holy Spirit keeps showing up again and again and again. That is the means by which the Lord intends to carry out the ministry among us. The next is, what's the result?

The result of Moses giving the law was a death of separation. Paul is going to underscore that, as we'll see shortly here, by calling the giving of the law, and it's specifically the Ten Commandments, a ministry of death. Important that we say death of separation, that's a principle taught in the Old Testament and in the New, because The opposite of that is life. The opposite of death is life, and life is a union. We are united with Christ. We have His life because we were united with Him.

The other thing that is the topic of the passage we're looking at today, verses 7 through verse 11, is the degree of glory. Both the giving of the law and the giving of these truths, these principles to the church come with glory. Both of the ministries, the ministry of the law, which Paul calls here a ministry of death and a ministry of condemnation, and he also calls this ministry that has been given in the church, a ministry of the spirit and a ministry of righteousness, both of those have a glory. But he makes throughout this passage a comparison. What kind of glory are we talking about here? Next is God's expression. The expression is one of condemnation through the law, but righteousness through Christ, righteousness through the ministry of grace.

And then the big question, what's the law for? And we'll address this in a little more detail. What is the law for? Is it to make you feel condemned? Well, that's not exactly the intent. The law was to determine, certainly to set the Jews aside, but also to decide how somebody is blessed. The law said you are blessed if you do it, you're cursed if you don't. But notice that if, if. The blessing depends on you. The curse, oh, that depends on you too. The law is if, if, and it all depends on you. What do you decide? What do you do? What do you think? What do you say?

That's the law. Under Christ and the ministry of grace, the ministry that the Lord has called us to, the blessing is unconditional. Ephesians 1.3 is the classic statement of that. It's unconditional and it's also not blessed here, but it's blessed heavenly. We've been given every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

And notice what Paul does with the Ephesians, is that he waits until the last half of the book to talk about their sin problem. Do they have a sin problem? Oh yeah! He's saying, stop your stealing. There was stealing going on. Stop your lying. He does talk to them about their sin, but their blessings don't depend on it. Under the law, if you're stealing and you're lying, you're not getting blessed. But under grace, you stop your stealing and you stop your lying because you're blessed. The other point that comes out in this passage is duration. The law is a ministry that fades. And by the way, it intentionally fades, as we'll soon see. But grace is a ministry that remains. Finally, and one we've alluded to here is the motivation.

Under the law, you're Doing the things that are in the law and you're not doing the things the law forbids, why? Because you do it so that you can be blessed. You do it in order to avoid being cursed. So the Sermon on the Mount, you must forgive, otherwise your Father in Heaven will not forgive you. Right? Ever read that? That would seem confusing until you understand that that's under law. and he was giving them the law. But under grace, the motivation is you do something because you're already blessed. Therefore, Paul would write, forgive one another as God in Christ has, got the tenth, has already forgiven you.

Ephesians 4.32. So do you give in order to be blessed and avoid the curse? Or do you forgive because you're already blessed? A motivation is quite different. You have also on the bottom of page one of your handout these poetic patterns.

The way we put that is the first section starts with the word but, B-U-T, and then four sections of, excuse me, three sections of four, F-O-R, beginning the next part. And notice the ministry statements, a ministry of death according to the law, ministry of the spirit, and the next one, ministry of condemnation according to the law, and then the ministry of righteousness. So it's an alternating contrast. You also have in there a number of statements about glory. The entire passage is all about glory from beginning to end. The other thing we've done on this slide is to indent those sections that have to do with the ministry that is to be conducted within the church. And so those are indented on that part of your handout there.

So which kind of ministry? And that's where Paul characterizes this here. The Law of Moses, as Paul portrays in the Ten Commandments, is a ministry of death and a ministry of condemnation. Ooh, you like that? Anybody like to volunteer? A ministry of death and a ministry of condemnation. Now there's a point I wish to make here. The original language has THE death. THE ministry of THE death. THE ministry of THE condemnation.

Likewise, the grace of Christ here is characterized. This is the ministry that Paul is carrying on and in fact continues on among us here in the church. And it's a ministry of the Spirit. and a ministry of righteousness. And just like the ministries of the law, each of them is in the original language, the spirit and the righteousness. The ministry of the death, the ministry of the condemnation, the ministry of the spirit, and the ministry of the righteousness. So there is emphasis here.

Paul draws principles from the law. by which we in the church are to live. See, the law is not something that we in the church are just simply say, hey, that doesn't apply to us and leave it alone. We are, in fact, called to learn from it. It is inspired by God and is profitable. Example, 1 Corinthians chapter 5, verses 7 and 8 made reference to things that were from the law, and he intended the church to learn from it. Not to carry out all the details of the law, but to get principles from it to live by. Secondly, when we studied 1 Corinthians chapter 10, we had two weeks in which we entitled it, Learn from the Law.

Why? Because Paul drew from the book of the law in order to have truths that the church was to live by. So the law is not to be set aside. As a matter of fact, I have an important question for you. Is the law bad? I mean, is it really, really bad? Right? Is the law bad? Actually, in fact, no. The law reflects God's very character. The law reflects the holiness of God. The law reflects that God is a moral being. You see, the pagan deities out there are not moral beings. One of the myths has Zeus hiding himself in a cloud in order to go off and commit adultery. He was not a moral being. The God of Scripture, however, is a God that is moral by character.

He is a God of holiness. He is a God of righteousness. Morality matters. What is right and what is wrong matters. Not just because God arbitrarily says, I'm picky, but because of God's very character. The law reflects God's character. So the law is not bad. So why do we have this distinction between law and grace? Why do we need grace? The problem with the law is not with the law. The problem with the law is man. Can't do it. Okay?

And by the way, 613 laws in the Law of Moses. Got that? 365 just like the number of days in a year or don't do this, don't do that, don't do this, don't do that. You got them memorized? Uh-oh. I don't either. Okay? 365 of them are don't do this and don't do that. In fact, your life is mostly defined by what you don't do. Right?

This is the character of the law. It's not that the law is bad. It's that there's no human being on the planet that can measure up to it. The law is in fact good. Paul acknowledges that and his recognition of it in Romans 7. But nobody can do it. And the law seems to do all the wrong things to our motivations.

So Paul makes very clear in Romans 6 here in verses 14 and 15, for sin shall not be master over you. Why? For you are not under law but under grace. Verse 15, what then, shall we sin because we're not under law but under grace? And he goes on to say, not a chance, no way, God forbid. So while we're not under law, we're to learn from law. And the law is not bad, the law is good.

It's human beings that always fall short of it. And why we are so desperately in need of grace. Matter of fact, nothing else will do. Something else, the Law of Moses never saved anybody and never was intended to. The Law of Moses would set the Jews apart as a people. The Law of Moses would determine for them who is blessed and who is cursed, but it never could save anyone. Why?

Because salvation at all times, from the day that Adam sinned until the time the last human being is on this planet, Salvation is always by faith. Always. And nothing more and nothing less. Always by faith. In Genesis, which we studied some time back here, Genesis 15, 6, Then he, that is Abraham, believed the Lord, and he, God, reckoned it to him, to Abraham, his righteousness. What did he do? He believed.

That's all. You're in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And that's it. Not of yourselves. You didn't pull it off. You didn't do it. It is the gift of God, your salvation. Not as a result of works of the law, so that no one may boast. No one can say, I did it. Oh, I did it my way. Right? No. I can't even say I did it God's way. No. It's all by grace. All by faith.

The law's sacrificial system, all those sacrifices that they did, certainly the annual Passover, but all the other sacrifices done for various reasons and at various times, they all pointed to faith in God's own sacrifice, Christ. As Hebrews pointed out, none of those sacrifices could actually deal directly with sin. All they could do was point to faith in the Lord's sacrifice for sin. So that is why the Gospel of John begins actually twice in the first chapter. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Behold the Lamb of God. Twice in John chapter 1.

The law was given to determine blessings and curses. Certainly to set the Jews apart, but also to decide, are you going to be blessed or are you going to be cursed? At least for the Jews. In Deuteronomy 28, that's the chapter by the way that spells out exactly what blessings and curses and that's where we get this main point.

All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the Lord your God and from there he begins to lay out all the blessings that they'll get. They're all in Israel, they're all earthly, they're all in the land and it has to do with things like their bodies and their crops and their families and how their life would be lived, even their political system. But it shall come about if you do not obey. Notice the if. If you do not obey the Lord your God. Then it goes on to say in verse 15 of Deuteronomy 28, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. And it goes on, this is verse 15, it goes past verse 60, spelling out all the curses.

We in the church, from Acts 2, to the time when the Lord comes to take us home, are already blessed, heavenly. Our blessings are already there, and they are heavenly. The Jews, under the law, had conditional blessings, you're blessed if, and the blessings were earthly. Conditional, earthly. We are blessed unconditionally and heavenly.

Now, as we look at this chapter, verses 1 through 6 carry a theme of letters. There's two kinds of references to letters. One is letters, meaning the individual letters, as we have ABC. And then the other kind of letters is letters like a letter that is written on paper in our day. Or what program do you use to write your letters, right?

Then in verse 7 through 11, today's passage, carrying a theme of glory from the beginning to the end of 7 through 11, as Courtney read for us. Glory is the theme. And then verses 12 through 18, which we'll look at next Sunday, will then carry the theme of Moses' veil. 12 through the end of the chapter, verse 18. The veil, the veil, the veil. We'll keep going back to that theme.

So the question is, what is glory? aside from when the Broncos won the Super Bowl. Okay? Glory is the radiant essence of who God is. That's ultimately what glory is. All other glory is derived. Glory is the radiant essence of who God is. You realize when this earth is done, when this planet that we walk on now and that we go about on is all done, How will the new heavens and earth, the new Jerusalem, be lit? By the radiant essence of who God is. No longer any sun. You don't need it. The new heavens and earth, the new Jerusalem, lit entirely by the radiant essence of who God is. His glory will light it all.

But glory isn't a static quality either. It's both given and shared by God, who is in turn glorified. So God gives glory, and he also is glorified. So glory is not something that just sits there as a part of God's character. It's something, believe it or not, he shares with us. And as he shares it with us, we have greater opportunity to glorify him.

Now, one of the things as we step our way through these verses, verse 7 makes it clear, Moses had a tough assignment. Can you imagine being Moses? Okay, here's these people, they have 400 years practice making bricks out of mud and straw. They're really, really good at making bricks. None better. Now you're going to take them away from this place where they've been living for four centuries, and you're going to take them out to a place where there's not quite enough water and not quite enough food, and they're not going to like it.

Okay? But you sign up for this job. Oh, by the way, you got to go through this sea that's in the way. Don't worry, I'll clear out things in front of you. But until the water clears, everybody's going to want to kill you. Right? Moses, what have you done? Okay? I'm not that good at swimming. Okay? I never had lessons, or it's been 20 years, right?

Moses had a tough assignment. God assigned Moses with carrying out a ministry of death in the people of Israel. You shall have no other gods before me, and what happens if you do? You die. You shall not bear false witness. What happens if you do? Oh, you die. Oh, this is great. This is going to sell really good, right?

It was begun by the letters engraved on the stone tablets, now called the Ten Commandments, and in fact in the Bible called the Ten Commandments. That giving of the law through Moses, in spite of the fact it was a ministry of death and condemnation, did have a glory of its own. Yeah, it did. The glory was so bright that the people of Israel could not look on Moses' shining face. And if you can't look at me, it's not because of that, I'm sure. OK.

But it was fading. And one of the things we're going to see that's very important, the fading, where you read that, means actually it was made to fade. If you have the King James translation, it says, done away. And that's actually a very good translation. It wasn't that it faded of its own. It didn't just kind of happen to fade. It was specifically made to fade. The law was not fading because it just sort of faded by itself. It faded because God wanted it to fade.

Did it have a glory? Yes. Was the law good? Yes. But the fading was actually by God's intent. In verse 9, one of the things that's made clear there, This literally says, the ministry, as we pointed out before, the ministry of the condemnation. It's specific. The ministry of the righteousness. Condemnation and righteousness are specific, the, the, and emphatic. Emphasis on it repeatedly. The glory that goes along with the ministry of righteousness is much more in its magnitude and is also abounding, which stands in contrast to the fading, intentionally fading, deliberately fading glory of Moses. Much more abounding versus fading intentionally. Fading, fading, gone. But the ministry of the Spirit, through whom the Apostle Paul ministered and by whom we all minister here today, is even more glorious, and it won't fade.

As a matter of fact, that's not at all what God has in mind. We minister here among this local body of Christ here, we call Holly Hills, by the many ministries of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit has something close to two dozen different ministries that are revealed to us and told to us, and that's just the ministries among believers. See, the Holy Spirit is ministering to every believer here this morning in all those ways. It is astounding. We carry out ministry here by the multiple ministries of the Holy Spirit. He indwells each believer here from the day of their new birth, from the day that they believed.

The Spirit's ministry as a sustained greater glory And then there's this comparison in verse 10. The glory of the ministry of the Spirit and the ministry of righteousness is so much greater than the glory of the ministry of death and condemnation. It's as if Moses' ministry had none at all.

Let me give you a point of comparison. Some years back I was doing business in Germany and I had made several trips over there and the last time I was going over there Well, to make a long story short, I knew it was going to be my last time. As a matter of fact, they told me I was going over there. They said, Vern, you're going to be a sacrificial lamb. Because it was a pretty wild time. But that last time, I took Nancy with me. And we stayed in Bomberg right along the river. Matter of fact, we could look out the window and almost reach the river. Good thing that we had to reach down to touch the river. Anyway.

The day that we were supposed to head back to the airport, head from Bomberg to Frankfurt, we overslept the alarm. If you drive at 80 miles an hour, it takes about three hours on the Autobahn, which is fine. That's not a problem. Well, Nancy and I threw everything into the suitcase, including the alarm clock that we'd overslept. And we threw it all in the car, and we got in the car, and Nancy said, immediately, I think I'm going to lay back and take a nap. And I said, that's really good, because you don't want to see how fast I'm going to have to drive to get to Frankfurt on time. OK?

All of a sudden, what would have been a nice, leisurely 80 miles an hour on the Autobahn was now 130 miles an hour in a Volkswagen Rabbit. It was, well, I was a tad white knuckled, right? So here we are traveling along the Autobahn and Nancy's snoozing away and I'm not, not even close.

But here's the thing that amazed me. Going 130 miles an hour, which I had no idea a rabbit would go that fast, there were cars that passed me up like I wasn't even moving. and uh... i was amazed how fast they went past me uh... it was as if i was standing still and i think that might be some sort of a comparison that uh... here moses veil had glory moses rather brightness had glory he had this shining glory to the point that he had to actually veil it as we'll read in the next passage compared to the glory of the ministry that the Lord has presently among us, it is as if Moses had no glory at all. The difference is so stark, just like the cars zooming past me on the Autobahn.

The glory of the ministry of the Spirit and the ministry of righteousness has a surpassing glory. The Greek word here for surpassing means to throw something way beyond the mark. And that's why we have this baseball here right over the airplane wing. This is not just a little bit over the top, this is way over the top. A glory that is way, way ahead of the glory of the law. As glorious as that was.

The great glory of the law of Moses, though it was very bright, was fading even as Moses was coming down off the mountain. Was it still too bright for the Israelites to look at? Oh yeah, painful. But it was still fading. It was going away. Even as he came down the mountain. Fading, fading, gone.

But the ministry of the Spirit and the ministry of righteousness has a sustaining, much more abounding and remaining glory among all of us, as this passage makes clear. This is a glory that comes from God Himself, a brightness that comes from the radiant essence of who God is. He shared with us who believe. And it's turned back so as to glorify Him forever. You see, God has shared His glory with us who believe in order that He might be glorified. That fulfills God's eternal purpose. Isn't it amazing that we're privileged to be a part of that? What awesome grace. Something else that comes out of this when we begin to see it, and we'll continue to see it in next week's passage, verses 12 through 18.

The law was not of a character to invite a person to draw near to God. The mountain rumbled. There were peals of thunder. There was lightning that caused them all to be afraid. There was a command, let no animal nor person come to the mountain. If they do, they're to be killed." It was an awesome sight. Frightening, but awesome. Deathly, yes.

Even the giving of the Ten Commandments had death and condemnation with it. Grace, however, invites us to draw near. Grace invites us to come close and behold the glory of the Lord. A huge contrast between the law and grace. The giving of the Ten Commandments? Awesome. Frightening. Enough to make one deathly afraid. But grace says come close. Grace says come closer.

Hebrews 10.22 Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith. You want assurance? Full assurance of faith.

Jesus told the disciples in John 15, 15, I have called you friends. I have called you friends. For all things that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. The Lord had a revelation there on the mountain to give to Moses, but it wasn't a friendly one. But what the Lord revealed to these apostles, who would be the foundation of the church, was, I have called you friends. I've revealed everything to you because you're my friends.

Grace is a friendly invitation. We have indeed a friend in Jesus, don't we? Let's pray. Lord, as we look at the contrast that Paul makes here, as we look at the character of glory, we thank you for a friendly glory. We thank you for a glory that certainly calls for our respect, but not our dread fear. and a glory that is of the spirit, your spirit's working, and a glory that declares its righteousness only by your grace. We thank you for making a way, making a provision, for revealing yourself in such an amazingly friendly way as the holy and awesome creator of the universe, but the one who calls us friends. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.