Gospel Glory

Because of our goal of studying
passages and preaching passages, having a number of men preach
passages about the church, and I was drawn to this passage that
is a little bit more broad. It’s about the ministry. And
I preached my passage and prepared to sit down for several weeks.
And then I kept coming back to this passage and really was drawn
back in because of the content of the ministry itself. And I figured that I would use
my pastoral prerogative and take yet another rabbit trail into
the book of Second Corinthians. And so we began last week, several
weeks ago, in taking a deeper look. We had seen the bedrock
of Christian ministry there laid down as Paul began this subject
in chapter two, verse 12. But then as he advances, he seems
to say, OK, if the foundation is laid there in chapter two,
verse 12, what motivates us to press on in ministry? And that’s
what we’ve looked at for the last couple of weeks. We looked
at momentum in ministry there in chapter three, beginning in
verse one. And we saw that there are a number
of energizing features that propel us onward in ministry. Not the
least of which is the fruit of ministry where Paul had seen
fruit, the Corinthians themselves and all of the blessed ministries
that Paul had been able to be part of. We had seen that that
fruit, those kinds of things are what propelled Paul to further
and greater ministries. He said, you are our letter written
in our hearts, known and read by all men, manifested that you
are a letter of Christ. Paul also pointed to, secondly,
the optimism of ministry, that there is cause for great optimism
because it’s God who is doing the work. And Paul said, it’s
simply such confidence we have through Christ toward God. It’s never an optimism in self.
It’s never an optimism in your program. It’s not an optimism
in the size of the church building or in the quantity of people
to whom you minister. It is an optimism in God that
it courses its way through Christ. Thirdly, we saw that there was
a third energizing feature that was propelling Paul on to further
and greater ministry, not only the fruit of ministry and the
optimism of ministry, but the provision of ministry, because
Paul knew from whom he had received his calling. There in chapter
3, verse 5, Paul said, not that we are adequate in ourselves
to consider anything as coming from ourselves. Paul knew that
he was devoid, bankrupt, even with all of his perfect Judaism,
as we saw in Philippians chapter 3. But Paul went on to say our
adequacy is from God. God put us here. God put us in
ministry. He made us adequate as servants
of a new covenant. God is the one that put us in
service, and because of all of those things, the fruitfulness
of ministry and the optimism in God through ministry and the
provision of ministry from God himself, Paul knew that he couldn’t
stand idly by. Paul knew that he couldn’t just
rest on what deeds he had accomplished. He knew that God had much more
laid out for him. But Paul identifies, I believe,
a problem that I see we have. And when I say we, I’m not even
talking now about the greater church. There is much of this
that would apply to the greater church, if not in America, to
the greater church worldwide. But I see a problem that not
only is a problem with the greater church, it’s a problem with Providence
Bible, as we talked about several weeks ago with regards to evangelism. And I said even then that if If those three things that we’ve
set out to do, glorify, edify, testify, we glorify God well,
we sing worship, we sing worshipful songs, we worship God well, we
preach the word, we try. And if there’s one of the three
that we do well, it’s that we glorify God. We seek to honor
God in our doctrine and honor God in our home. And we edify. We seek to build
each other up in the faith. We seek to teach one another
and we seek to get into one another’s lives and fellowship and get
beyond just basic fellowship and talk about spiritual things
and pray together and pray for one another. We edify. The thing
that I suggested, perhaps, that we’re not so good at is the third.
There in our distinctives, marked out from the very beginning of
Providence Bible Church, we glorify, we edify and we testify. And maybe that’s the one we are
weakest on. And I think my assessment is
that I think I’ve hit on the reason why. The Lord Jesus throughout his
ministry was kind of plagued between doing signs and then
constantly being dogged by those who were seeking the very signs
that he was doing. What they wanted was more signs.
You remember the feeding of the five thousand upon the feeding
of the five thousand. Jesus was almost mobbed by a
crowd that really wanted more free bread. That’s what they
really wanted. It wasn’t eternal life necessarily that they were
seeking. They wanted more free bread. But one of the most poignant
examples of that came in Matthew, chapter 12. Just listen. I’ll
just be there a moment. In Matthew, chapter 12, verse
38, it says, Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to
him, Teacher, we want to see a sign from you. I mean, it was
that plain. Show us a sign. Prove who you
are. But he answered and said to them,
an evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign, and yet no
sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah, the prophet. And just as Jonah was three days
and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the
Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of
the earth. Jesus didn’t play. to their desires. Jesus didn’t
give them another sign just because they desired a sign. The thing
that I wonder about Providence Bible Church and the greater church as well
in America is whether maybe we just don’t have the confidence
in the gospel ministry that we should. because it doesn’t seem
to be attended with all the glitz and pizazz that the Old Testament
ministry had. We don’t see lights. We don’t
see flashes of fire. We don’t hear thunderous voices
from heaven. We don’t see pillars of fire.
We don’t see the water parted. And so we settle into some kind
of a complacency, thinking that maybe, you know, this is good
and I’m certainly thankful for my salvation, God. But it just isn’t all that exciting
to us anymore. And I honestly think that’s the
problem that the Corinthian church had. And I think that’s exactly
why Paul took up this subject before the Corinthians. And I
want to take the context, take the passage rather in its context.
If you would go all the way back to chapter three, verse one. Are we beginning to commend ourselves
again? Or do we need, as some, letters
of commendation to you or from you? You are our letter, written
in our hearts, known and read by all men, being manifest that
you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink,
but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone,
but on tablets of human hearts. Such confidence we have through
Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves
to consider anything is coming from ourselves, but our adequacy
is from God who made us adequate as servants of a new covenant,
not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills,
but the Spirit gives life. But if the ministry of death
in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the
sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses
because of the glory of his face fading as it was? How will the
ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? For if the ministry of condemnation
has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound
in glory. For indeed, what had glory in
this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it.
For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that
which remains is in glory.” I think we have an inferiority
complex is what we have. I think we actually think that,
boy, you know, Moses, Had it really good. That burning bush
thing. If we only had a burning bush. If we only had a pillar
of fire. If we only had the parting of
the Red Seas. If we only had shining faces
like Moses. Boy, I’d convert my entire neighborhood. I’d talk to my boss then. I’d
open my mouth even with my dying family members. I think we have an inferiority
complex. That’s what I think. And I think that’s what Paul
thought of the Corinthians, that they had a lesser gospel. That
somehow stood in the background to the glorious ministry of the
Old Testament. And that somehow they thought
that this was just another step along the way, that the glory
days were far beyond them. Paul, as I said several weeks
ago, laid out this contrast that he has between the old covenant,
the ministry of the law and the ministry of the gospel. And I
want to take you back in and look at the obvious contrast
that are throughout this great passage. That’s why we went all
the way back to chapter three, verse one. He speaks of a ministry
that is written with ink. And don’t get me wrong, I and
the commentaries know that the tablets were not written on by
ink, but it was a ministry of communication. It was revelation
from God. And that’s what’s in contrast
here. He says that there was a ministry
written by God. written initially on tablets
of stone, but designed by God to be communicated perpetually
through time. The law. There was that ministry
written with ink, and then there is the other ministry written
with the spirit of the living God. The letter of Christ that
he told the Corinthians, they were they were the letter of
Christ. Paul had been an instrument in God’s hands, but ultimately
they were written by Christ and the spirit of the living God. There was another contrast later
that we saw in that same verse written on tablets of stone as
opposed to tablets of human hearts to completely different material.
It’s a completely different medium. Paul speaks in verse six of that
same chapter of a new covenant. And he prefigures in that, he
doesn’t even have to say it, that everything else, all the
rest of that law, the ink, the stone tablets, that whole ministry
is part of the old covenant. That ministry was of the letter.
The new is of the spirit. The letter kills. The spirit
gives life. Those are the contrasts that
Paul began to set up. And all he does is perpetuate
that in this passage that we consider this morning. Look at
verse 7. In verse 7, he talks about a
ministry of death. As opposed to the ministry of
the spirit in verse 8, he speaks of the ministry of condemnation
in verse 10 or pardon me, in verse 9, as opposed to the ministry
of righteousness in verse 9. It’s a ministry that fades away.
Verse 11, as opposed to a ministry that remains. And all the while, the common
thread through this entire thing is the glory of God. That this
is a ministry that is attended with glory, just of a different
kind. The glory of God. Even when I
say it, I’m sure images pop into your mind when you say the glory
of God. These fantastic images that come to us from the earliest
days of our Sunday school. Those images of the Old Testament,
the glitz and the fire and the smoke and the thunder. That’s
what we think of when we think of the glory of God. But let’s
pause for just a moment and consider what is the glory of God. One said that when we have seen
the glory of God, we have seen God’s revelation of Himself insofar
as He at that moment is willing to reveal Himself. And so it
often is a very powerful moment recorded in Scripture. What is
the glory of God? The Old Testament word for it
was kabod that originally meant heavy. The word meant heavy or
weighty, even burdensome. And ultimately, it was taken
to mean that you would evaluate or esteem something, placing
it as it were in scales. And if it was heavy, weighty,
if it was worth something, you were to honor it. As a result,
God became kabod. He was overwhelming. He was awesome. A word that I’ve said elsewhere
that we ought to reserve only and exclusively for God. But it also denoted the manifestation
of light by which God often revealed Himself. The divine presence
in the cloud that so often led Israel. One described it this
way, it conveys the idea of some external physical manifestation
of dignity, preeminence or majesty. And that when they saw this cloud,
there was no doubt who was behind it. There was no doubt whose
manifestation it was. It could define the wealth. This
word could define the wealth which gives honor and distinction
to a person. You might say that just like
in the Proverbs, the gray hair is the glory of an old man. We
might think of our wealth as our glory. It could be used to
speak of the majesty, dignity and splendor, honor of a person.
So you see, you know, the king and all of his pomp coming through
town and that is his glory. But most importantly, it was
used in the Old Testament to describe the form which God Yahweh
would reveal himself. Or the sign or manifestation
of his presence, once you come to the New Testament, you have
a different word, obviously, in the Greek doxa, which meant
to talk about the opinion or esteem of something and and thus
an easy transfer to the praise or honor or glory of a thing. But the glory of a particular
thing is, as one said, the exercise and display of what constitutes
the distinctive excellence of the subject, the very best part.
In other words, the flower, the beauty of a flower and the essence
of a flower conveys the greater thing. Some have sought to define the
glory of God, and there are some good ones. This is one. The glory
of God is used of the acts, pardon me, the nature and acts of God
in his self manifestation. And so when Israel would see
one of these phenomena, they would say that they had seen,
as it were, God himself. The glory of God was used in
the character and ways of God. as exhibited through Christ unto
believers. And we use it that way all the
time to say that we glorify God. We glorify Christ. That just
means that we’re walking in the way that God would have us to
walk. We please Him in those respects. The glory of God is
used in the state of blessedness to which hopefully we would one
day enter as Christians. But the glory of God more than
anything comes to mind the brightness, that splendorous brightness supernaturally
emanating from God. That’s what comes to our mind.
That’s what came to Thomas Watson’s mind when he called the glory
of God the sparkling of the deity. Because we can’t possibly think
that that is anything more than just a spark, a flash of God’s
incredible brilliance. Even the children of Israel that
saw these theophanies knew that they weren’t seeing the full
expression of deity. They were seeing what they could
behold without being struck dead in a moment. And so this glory
of God is the supernaturally produced, overwhelming presence
of God that often appeared as a bright light representing the
perfections or the attributes of a perfect God. God’s glory, said one, is the
manifestation of His divine attributes and perfections. And we see throughout
Scripture different episodes and different eras, if you will,
of the glory of God. And the glory of God, because
of that, is such a revelation of such an awesome kind that
it could only represent, as I said, the revelation of a holy God. Consider with me just in your
mind’s eye and feel free to jot down the Scriptures. But if you
try to keep up with it, I fear I’ll just leave you and confuse
you. God’s glory was manifest in creation. Psalm 91, the heavens
are telling of the glory of God. Just looking out at God’s creation
shows us God’s glory. And it’s not the bright flash
of light that other passages will speak of. But it is glorious
nonetheless. Their expanse is declaring the
work of His hands. There’s nothing left to wonder
about. Psalm 97 6, the heavens declare His righteousness and
all the peoples have seen His glory. No wonder Paul says they’re
without excuse. Psalm 138 5, they will sing of
the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord. And
they weren’t talking about a great light in that passage. Isaiah 6 3, Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His
glory. And it wasn’t speaking about
that overwhelming brightness upon which the people of the
earth could not look because they couldn’t have lived. They
couldn’t have functioned. It was just saying that the whole
earth is absolutely full of the Lord’s glory in the sense that
if you will just pause to look long enough, just like Paul told
the Athenians, if you will just look, But God’s glory was also manifest
in special ways to Israel. In Exodus 16.10, it came about
as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the sons of Israel, that they
looked toward the wilderness and behold, the glory of the
Lord appeared in the cloud. And they saw this bright cloud
and they called it the glory of the Lord. Exodus 23. Pardon me, 24, verse 15, Moses
went up to the mountain. You know what? Clouds, if you
will, in a different sense, what clouds our understanding of this
is having seen Charlton Heston as Moses, right? It’s the first
thing you think of. You know, you immediately begin
to imagine Charlton Heston. And I don’t know if you’ve seen
it recently, but he comes down off the mountain and his hair,
it’s like first they used gel and then they used white spray
paint. And that is supposed to represent the glory that we’re
about to read about. That’s what clouds our mind.
Then Moses went up to the mountain. The cloud covered the mountain.
The glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai. The cloud covered
it for six days. On the seventh day, he called
Moses from the midst of the cloud. The eyes of the sons of Israel,
the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming
fire on the mountaintop. Moses entered the midst of the
cloud and he went up to the mountain and Moses was on the mountain
40 days and 40 nights. Then in Exodus 33 we read, Moses
said, I pray you show me your glory. Moses wanted to see God. He wasn’t asking, you know, just
somebody said it this way. When Moses made the request of
God, he wasn’t speaking of the light cloud that he had already
seen. He had already been entertained,
as it were, with that. He wanted to see the real thing.
He wanted to see God. You wanted to see a special manifestation
of God. But if you will, this begins
to tell us that even these great images don’t even begin to encompass
who God is. It’s a flash. In Exodus 40, another
incident, the cloud Pardon me. Then the cloud covered the tent
of meeting the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses
was not able to enter the tent of the meeting because of the
cloud that had settled on it and the glory of the Lord filled
the tabernacle. So it had some kind of a physical
presence, some kind of overwhelming, emanating brightness. Moses wasn’t
even able to go in to the tent. And it happened again. In Israel’s
history, a number of different times and incidents. Number 16,
Korah assembled all the congregation in the doorway of the tent meeting
and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the congregation. Number
16, 42, it came about, however, when the congregation had assembled
against Moses and Aaron, that they turned toward the tent of
the meeting and behold, the cloud covered it and the glory of the
Lord appeared. It happened in Deuteronomy. Recorded
there in Deuteronomy 5.24, Behold, the Lord our God has shown us
His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from
the midst of the fire. There was no doubt in their mind
who they had seen. And after we begin to review
some of these, we say, yeah, you know what? We’re kind of
left short-handed here. Because we don’t have the bright
light. That glory was also seen. In
Christ, it was prophesied the prophets, as they used the word
glory, often used it to set forth the excellence of that coming
messianic kingdom, in contrast with Israel’s current state. Isaiah 35, 1 to 2 said the wilderness
and the desert will be glad. The Ereba will rejoice and blossom
like the crocus. It will blossom profusely and
rejoice with the rejoicing and shout of joy. The glory of Lebanon
will be given to it. The majesty of Carmel and Sharon,
they will see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.
It was prophesied of Christ. Arise, shine. Isaiah 60, verse
1 and 2. Arise, shine, for your light
has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Prophesied
of Christ. It was announced of Christ. Luke
chapter 2, verse 9. The angel of the Lord suddenly
stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them
and they were terribly frightened. And now you say, even with Christ?
And we haven’t seen it. And we’re shorthanded. And I
would do such a better job at sharing the Gospel if I only
had the light. It was even recounted of Christ.
John 1.14, the Word became flesh, dwelt among us. We saw His glory. Glory is of the only begotten
from the Father, full of grace and truth. It was good for John. John 2, verse 11, the beginning
of His signs, Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and manifested His
glory and His disciples believed in Him. They saw it. No wonder
they believed it. In fact, the writer of the Hebrews
captures this whole thing, this unfolding revelation of God attended
with His glory throughout the ages. God, after He spoke long ago
to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many
ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom
He appointed heir of all things and through whom also He made
the world. And He is the radiance of His glory, the exact representation
of His nature and upholds all things by the word of His power.
When He had made purifications of sin, He sat down at the right
hand of majesty on high. Jesus is the full radiance of
the Father’s glory. And whoever wrote Hebrews saw
it and perceived it. Jesus Christ was God’s final
revelation to humanity. But there’s one more area where
the glory of God is fully manifested. And I wonder if we perceive it. Because that area where the glory
of God is fully manifested is the gospel ministry. And that’s
exactly what Paul is addressing here in these passages. If you would go back to verse
seven of this chapter, chapter three, because I want to look
just briefly this morning at the glorious nature of the gospel
ministry. Because Paul says it is attended
with glory. The ministry of the gospel, first
of all, is a gospel. Pardon me, the ministry of the
gospel is a ministry with glory attending. It is a ministry that
is attended fully with glory. It doesn’t have the bright light,
doesn’t have the glitz and the thunder. But the glory is absolute
because it’s Christ. Look again at the passage where
Paul begins by saying, if the ministry of death and letters
engraved on stones came with glory and he’s talking about
the law, he’s talking about even the giving of the law, Moses
on the mountain, you know, the fire, the smoke, the whole deal,
the tablets being written by the finger of God. If that came
with glory. But note that he calls it the
ministry of death. We touched upon this, began to
touch on it last week, the ministry of death. Well, that is the ministry
of the law. The law brings death. That’s
what we talked about for a great portion of last week. The law
does bring death. First Corinthians 1556, the sting
of death is sin. The power of the sin is the law.
The law came, showed us the sin. The sin brought death. Galatians
310, as many are of the works of the law are under a curse
for it is written, cursed is everyone who does not abide by
all the things written in the book of the law to perform them.
The law didn’t come to save us, the law came to convict us. God
wasn’t under delusion to think that anybody could ever aspire
to live the Ten Commandments so perfectly that he earns heaven. God knew us. He knew our hearts. He knew the core of our being.
And He knew we could never live up to those things. I want to
take you back in your mind’s eye to Luke chapter 10. In Luke 10, do you remember the
parable of what is so called the Good Samaritan? And I’ll
tell you again, it is not a parable of go out and do kindness to
your neighbor. It’s not. The message is there, but that’s
not what it’s about. I’ll tell you what the parable
is about. The parable is about the law. The parable is about
being shut up in death. And that’s exactly what Paul
says that this ministry of the law is. It’s a ministry of death. What started the parable of the
Good Samaritan was a certain lawyer who came to Christ to
try to put Jesus to the test by saying, Teacher, what shall
I do to inherit eternal life? That’s the law’s mindset. The
law’s mindset is always work. What can I do? Give me 10 commandments. Give me 50. Tell me what I need
to do and I’ll go about starting to do them. If I have to work
my way to heaven, that’s what I will do. That’s what the lawyer
said. And Jesus gives him the standard,
what’s written in the law. How does it read to you? You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all
your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, and love
your neighbor as yourself. Simple. And this guy thought
he had it. Slam dunk. He thought he was
already in. That’s the law’s standard. The
law’s standard is perfection. That’s all you have to do. All you have to do is live this
perfectly and you will live. That’s what the law always said.
But God wasn’t under the delusion to think that anybody could actually
do it. God laid out the standard, the
standard of perfection, and there are plenty of people that take
the bait all the time to think that, oh, yeah, no problem. The
lawyer did. Wishing to justify himself, he
said, and who is my neighbor? I’ve loved people, I’ve been
kind. The person that lives right next
door to me, I’ve been kind to and I’ve done things for. But
what are you saying, Jesus? The law’s neighbor, as the parable
goes on to show, is everyone. Everyone who ever comes across
our path and even those that don’t. When Jesus asked at the end of
that parable, which one of these three, which of the people that
cared for this poor beaten person, which one of the three proved
to be a neighbor to the man who fell among robbers? The lawyer
obviously said the one who showed mercy towards him and Jesus said,
go and do the same. And by that, it was a merciful
call to the gospel is a merciful call to say, you know what? The
law is too overwhelming. I can’t do it. Jesus, I can’t. I need mercy. That’s not what
the lawyer did, at least not so far as we know. The law’s
mindset is work. The law’s standard is perfection.
The law’s neighbor is everyone. And the law’s promise is impossible. Do this and you will live. That’s
the best you have for me, God. No wonder Paul calls it a ministry
of death. It’s exactly what it was designed
to do. What it’s referring to is the whole dispensation of
the Mosaic law and the apostles purpose in illustrating this
is to show the superiority of the gospel ministry. It is a
glorious ministry, and he’s here to show the inferiority of the
law to the gospel because it’s shown in three different ways
in this little passage. He points us to the letters engraved
on stones, the tablets of the law. The writing made by God
on the first tables, it’s not even said who wrote the second
two, nor even whether the writing was engraving or whatever, Exodus
34, 28. But the commandments being the
basis for the Mosaic law were here basically stated for the
entirety of the Mosaic system. And if that came with glory,
accompanied with signs, the fire, the smoke, the writing of God’s
finger on these tablets. If that came with glory, how
much more glorious is the Christian Gospel? The Gospel of Jesus Christ
that comes and brings hope and life and salvation. If the law had a glorious inauguration
on the hill with great light, Doesn’t the gospel coming from God, the giving of
the law was necessarily glorious. It was apparent to all the people,
as I said, just as we saw the Hollywood’s attempt to paint
up Charlton Heston, they didn’t leave that part out. At least
something had happened to Moses up on the mountain and the people
could see it. Only they couldn’t even look on his face. It says
they could not look. They couldn’t behold it. They
couldn’t stare at Moses’ face, even though it was fading, Paul
says. And just like Moses’ ministry
was fading, Moses’ ministry wasn’t designed for all time. Moses’
ministry wasn’t the final word. How much more, Paul says, Would
the ministry, pardon me, how much would the ministry of the
Spirit fail to be even more with glory? Because this ministry
isn’t fading. The ministry of the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ is it. And it is glorious. It is glorious
truth to know that Jesus died for sinners and that if those
who come to Christ will only yield to him in faith, They embrace
the salvation that they cannot lose, that they will enjoy forever
in eternity. How much more should the ministry
of the Spirit, which isn’t transitory, remain glorious? And Paul says
it even by use of the little preposition there, it is in glory. And it denotes there the permanency,
the perpetual nature of this glory. It’s glorious now. It
will continue to be glorious. It will always be glorious. There’s
nothing better coming. There’s not a better program.
There’s not part two. There’s not another covenant.
There’s not a different era, a different dispensation. This
is it. Just the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
what it points to is that the ministry is going to continue
to be in this atmosphere of glory. And we’re looking for light. We’re looking for glitz and sound. The glorious nature of the gospel
ministry is also seen because it’s a ministry that is not only
has glory attending, but glory exceeding. It is a glory that
exceeds even that which is already given. Look at verse nine. For
if the ministry of condemnation has glory now uses a different
word. First, it was a ministry of death. Now it’s a ministry
of condemnation. And that is the purpose of the law. If the
ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry
of righteousness abound in glory. The law had to have been understood
to be a ministry of condemnation. That was the nature of the law.
Condemnation was the consequence of breaking the law. Righteousness
is precisely the opposite. It’s the keeping of the law,
but it’s not us that keep it. It’s Christ who’s already kept
it. The perfect Savior. And it’s
his righteousness that God sees, not ours. The gospel isn’t lawless. But
rather, it is the ministry, as one said, of righteousness to
those who, because of sin, are under condemnation. Condemnation
comes easy. This righteousness is administered
to men solely by the mediation and merit of Jesus Christ, who
alone is the incarnate son, who alone is perfectly obeyed God’s
holy law. Christ is the believer’s righteousness
in justification, in sanctification and in glorification. He’s our
only hope. And it is a glory that far exceeds
the giving of the law. Paul knew it. Paul, writing in
Romans 7, said it this way in verse 12. So then the law is
holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Therefore,
did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May
it never be. Rather, it was sin in order that
it might be shown to be sin by affecting my death through that
which is good so that through the commandment sin would become
utterly sinful. Said it the same way in Galatians
3.23. Before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law,
being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Same
thought uttered in 1 Timothy 1. We know that the law is good
if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that the law was not
made for a righteous person. There aren’t any. Paul’s using
this rhetorically. But for those who are lawless
and rebellious, for the ungodly and the sinners, for the unholy
and profane, for those who kill fathers or mothers, murderers,
immoral men, homosexuals, kidnappers, liars, perjurers and whatever
else is contrary to sound teaching. In other words, he says all of
humanity. That’s what the law was for and
it condemns us on the spot. But righteousness, Apart from the law, the righteousness
of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the
prophets. This is an exceedingly more glorious ministry, the ministry
that we’ve been entrusted with, the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that we can go now and tell people there is help for
you from the law. You are already under condemnation. You are already under a ministry
of death. But Christ sends us out with
a ministry of the Spirit that is life giving and life changing. No wonder Paul wrote in Romans
8, there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus
for the law, the spirit of life in Jesus Christ has set you free
from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do,
weak as it was through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh as an offering for sin. He condemned
the sin in the flesh so that the requirement of the law might
be fulfilled in us who did not walk according to the flesh,
but according to the Spirit. The glory of the old covenant
couldn’t even be compared. Can’t even be compared. It’s
as if it had no glory at all. And we know that it had glory
because we read the passages and God said that it had glory
and God says it again here that it had glory. But it’s as if
it had no glory at all when you compare it to the glorious ministry
of Christ. Compared to the New Covenant,
compared to the gospel of Christ, it’s as if the law had no glory
at all. One said it this way, the ministry
of righteousness so far surpasses in glory the ministry of condemnation
that in comparison with it, it may be said to be no longer glorious. Just as the brightness of the
sun altogether transcends and supersedes the brightness of
the moon, I can I was telling the kids the other day in the
olden days when I went to school, there was this hill. that we
would climb up in a full moon and on a real snowy night, we
would climb up this hill by moonlight and ski down. That’s how bright
the moon was. But I’ve seen even a full moon
course across the daytime sky, and it’s utterly worthless, that
light. It’s utterly worthless because
of the light of the sun. That’s what Paul’s saying. This
light of the gospel ministry is so powerful and so superior
to that of the law But it’s a flash of light. It’s a flash of light
compared to the perpetual light of the sun. Thirdly, the ministry
of the gospel is a ministry not only with glory attending and
glory exceeding, but with glory enduring. This isn’t a flash
in the pan ministry. This isn’t a temporary thing
like the law was. For if that which fades away,
look at verse 11, was with glory, much more that which remains
is in glory. The third contrast again, it’s
the sign of the signs of divine power, which occurred in the
giving of the law, these flashes and fire and smoke and bright
light, even the physical changes that happened to Moses, even
if temporarily. If those. Were the things that were
recognized even then that it was the work of God. How much
more are we to look beyond to recognize that this glorious
gospel is a ministry that is the work of God and it is so
far superior in glory because this glory will not fade. There
is no phase three. This is the glorious work of
God. It is nothing in comparison to
what was given to last forever. Christianity is an eternal truth. Christianity is an eternal gospel,
a gospel that reaches forward into eternity and brings those
who are saved with it into an eternal salvation. The ministers of the Christian
gospel, they don’t have this temporary sunburn on their face
or whatever kind of thing it was that even Hollywood couldn’t
do a great job with. ministers of the gospel, they
don’t come with a bright, shiny face, but their souls have the
everlasting glory of the message that they deliver. We go forth
with the glory of Christ in our hearts, shining as it were in
a dark, dying land. And now I’ll ask you, is this
gospel secondary? Is this gospel enough to give us an inferiority
complex to where we would stop up our mouths and our hearts
and our lives thinking that maybe there’s something more to come? The permanence of the Gospel,
the perpetual nature of the Gospel is that third glorious element. It will endure. That which remains
is in glory and it will be glorious. Because what it brings in tow
is a great heavenly host to come and to praise God for all time,
not just on the Lord’s day to fill the Lord’s churches, but
to fill heaven. It is a glorious gospel of which
Paul speaks, and he says that if that’s true, if that’s true,
we cannot be silent. And we’ll take it up next time.
Let’s bow. Our Father God, we thank you
and praise you for this timeless passage that opened our eyes
to the glorious nature of the gospel ministry. Father, we thank
you that just as the giving of the law, the whole Old Testament
ministry was glorious. Father, we see that it fades
into the background. that the ministry of Christ and
Christ’s gospel is so far superior. Lord, may that stir our hearts
and motivate us to share our Savior with others, that others
may too become a bright and shining light that burns forever for
your glory. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray,
Amen.