Momentum in Ministry, Part 2

And to second Corinthians, second
Corinthians chapter three is where we’ll find ourselves once
again this morning. We began, I think, almost a month
ago now in preparing to look at this lengthy section. I didn’t
know exactly when we’d take it up and we have purpose to kind
of shift our course a little bit out of Philippians for a
few weeks and into this passage, a great passage on the ministry,
probably one of the chief passages in all the New Testament on the
gospel ministry. And in looking at it, I originally
I tried to find out where does this subject actually begin and
where does it end? I’m pretty confident that it
ends or that at least Paul begins to wrap up his thoughts in chapter
six, verse 10. But the beginning is a little
bit more difficult to discern. But in looking at it, I really
saw that it begins essentially in chapter two, verse 12. And
we spent one Lord’s day just on that passage. And really,
that is what seized hold of me and really encouraged my own
heart and then called me, beckoned me back to this passage to finish
it out. So we will make an attempt to
do that. I suggested 12 weeks, maybe 12
and a half or 13. Now, just based on last Sunday,
if you go back to chapter two, verse 12, we essentially called
that the bedrock of ministry. That’s where Paul starts this
whole subject. And we saw there five foundational
components of the gospel ministry. Paul, first of all, pointed to
God’s sovereign providence that when he came to Troas, there
was a door that was open to him and that it was a door that was
opened providentially and sovereignly by God Himself. Secondly, we
saw the promise of absolute victory. That doesn’t mean that everything
ministerial that we ever do or set out to do as Christians is
going to be blessed from an earthly standpoint. But Paul does say
in verse 14, but thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph
and manifest through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of him
in every place. There is victory in ministry.
There is honor just in serving the Lord, regardless of whatever
earthly outcome we have. We know that we follow in the
trail of a conquering king. Thirdly, We saw that part of
the gospel ministry is built upon a representation of Christ,
that we are a representation of Christ, that we are a fragrant
aroma, a fragrance of Christ to God. First and foremost, God
loves the fragrance of Christ emanating from us. But it also
emanates to all of those on the earth, not only believers, What
Paul says, those that are proceeding from life to life, but also unbelievers,
to those who go from death to death, they smell the aroma of
Christ. It is unmistakable. And no wonder Paul says with
that serious weight of ministry hanging over our heads, Paul
says, who? is adequate for such a thing.
There is a selfless humility that is a core element in the
gospel ministry. Paul says, who is adequate for
these things? And yet he doesn’t even need to answer the question.
No one. No man in and of himself is adequate for this kind of
ministry. To know that as you walk out
with the aroma of Christ emanating from you, that aroma, that gospel
ministry that you take with you is sending some to life and some
to death. But that’s the truth. That is
the truth. And we are not adequate in and
of ourselves for that. And Paul will talk about throughout
this section, what does make him adequate? What does make
the man adequate for such a weighty ministry? The fifth part of that
that we looked at is that the gospel ministry, fifthly, is
built upon a proclamation of God’s word. That is ministry. It’s not necessarily the soup
kitchen if it is devoid of the gospel ministry. It’s not necessarily
service to your neighbor if you never open your mouth and share
why it is you’re serving. Paul said it this way, we are
not like many peddling the word of God. I was refreshed to hear
our brother several weeks ago talk about the music ministry
and just the privilege to just minister to people without charging
a fee per se. We are not like many, Paul says,
peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from
God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God. As I shared with
you several weeks ago, it doesn’t frighten me so much. that our
messages are all recorded, that they’re ultimately pasted, however
you do that, on the website and on the Internet and that they’re
available for all to hear, that doesn’t so much concern me. And
I’m not trying to suggest that we have a worldwide influence,
but the part that is really cause for consternation to me, the
part that really keeps me awake on Saturday night particularly,
is that we speak in Christ, in the sight of God. God listens
to my messages. God listens to everything that
we proclaim. And it should be cause for trepidation. And it is with that backdrop
that Paul says, are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Is that what Paul’s doing there?
In the foundations of ministry? Bedrock there? Laying those five
foundational elements for ministry? Is he commending himself? Look
at chapter 3, verse 1. 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 manifested
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 as coming from ourselves. But our adequacy
is from God, who also 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. Paul talked about the foundation
of ministry and the foundation is established and the building
of ministry is going on. But as I said last week, there
are a thousand reasons to knock off and to quit. To stop the
construction frustration with people, frustration with circumstances,
frustration with the economy, frustration with troublemakers
and troublesome people. There are a thousand reasons
to quit. And Paul says, look, I need to
tell you what ministers to my own heart, what propels me further
into ministry, what gives us momentum in ministry. What I
suggested to you last week as we began is that in this passage,
there are three energizing features that urge us forward in ministry
that we can’t quit and neither can we just sit idle. Because God is blessing the work
of his hands, God is blessing the work of ministry, and so
first and foremost, we see momentum in ministry by the fruit of ministry. We are provided, we are further
impelled, if you will, into the service of Christ by the fruit
of ministry. When you look around and you
see people growing in Christ, when you see people leaving off
old sins, when you see people beginning to minister their own
giftedness, it gives us great cause to press further and to
find new prospects and to find new people with new struggles.
and to plead for God’s grace to do the same kind of work with
them. Somebody had evidently made a
charge, we looked at it in lengthy fashion last week, that perhaps
Paul was boasting here at the end of chapter two. It’s not
the case at all. Paul often spoke with very frank
words that he was mightily helped by God, that he had accomplished
incredible things, that he possessed the mind of Christ. And there
were many phrases and clauses and sentences that very well
could have been used by an enemy. to make this claim against Paul,
but we saw that it wasn’t true. Paul said very clearly that he
was who he was merely and purely by God’s grace. Paul didn’t need
a letter to go to the Corinthians. They had seen God’s work in his
own life and they had seen God work in their life because of
him. He didn’t need a letter. He didn’t need a commendation.
He didn’t need a resume. But Paul, as we saw, doesn’t
repudiate that practice. Paul used that many times, commending
others to various churches. Paul used the commendation of
various churches in his own ministry. So Paul isn’t saying categorically
that using a letter of recommendation is bad. He’s just saying to the
Corinthians that of all the churches to whom I ministered, you of
all the churches know me. I hardly need a letter of recommendation,
as some do. But he goes on and he says, and this
will transition us into the new material, he said that you are
our letter at the end of verse two. Written in our hearts, known
and read by all men being manifested, that you are a letter of Christ,
it’s Christ that does the writing. It’s not that they were a letter
of Paul. It’s not that they were of Paul, as he makes very clear
in 1 Corinthians 1. It’s not that they were of Paul
at all. Paul was merely the ink pen.
And he wasn’t even the ink. Paul was merely an instrument
in God’s hands to minister to these people, but it was Christ
who was doing the writing. And it was Christ who was written
in their hearts. Look at verse 3. You are a letter
of Christ cared for by us. We are your stewards. We are
answerable to God. Hebrews 13, for how we present
you. But you’re written not with ink.
But with the spirit of the living God, it’s Christ that’s doing
the writing. It’s the Holy Spirit that is blending out, as it were,
those words on the page of your life, written not on tablets
of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. And with that, Paul immediately
brings into bold relief the ministry of the Old Testament and the
ministry of the new. Paul and his colleagues were
being used by God. There’s no doubt. Paul, that’s
exactly what he does when he says, I don’t need a letter.
They knew very well that God had used Paul abundantly. But
ultimately speaking, Paul was merely an instrument and it’s
the spirit. It’s the spirit that was doing
the work. As one said, the Spirit was the
efficient force. The letter which it produces
consisted of these living persons. Any man could write with ink,
but Christ alone can write with the Spirit of God. Paul was a minister of Christ. But it was Jesus that was doing
the writing on the hearts of the Corinthians. And it was the
Spirit of God that was forming the words And they were not on
tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. Now, Mark, that
we will come back to that theme, that idea. What Paul talks about
is the Ten Commandments. He talks about the law and he
says, look, the ministry of the Old Testament, this ministry
written on stone tablets. With this outward thing, literally
stone tablets, is there a better figure? that opposes the human
heart than a stone tablet. Paul said the minister of the
Old Testament was written on stone tablets, but now God has
purposed to write with the Spirit of God on the medium of human
hearts. Paul, in using that imagery,
certainly brings forward passages such as Ezekiel 11, 19, where
God long prophesied of this turn, this change in ministry from
being an outward to an inward, an internal ministry. Ezekiel
11, verse 19, I will give them one heart. I will put a new spirit
within them. I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh
and give them a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36, 26, I will give you
a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will remove the
heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Jeremiah 31, 33. This is the covenant which I
make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the
Lord. I will put my law within them and in their heart I will
write it and I will be their God and they shall be my people. There is nothing that will more
propel us and motivate us for more ministry than to see the
Spirit of God written on human hearts by none other than the
living Christ Himself. And to think that we can be instruments
in God’s hand Whether it is a letter that we write of encouragement
to another, or we sit down and we pray with another, or we open
our Bible and we walk through the Romans road and share the
gospel with somebody, or we give someone a rolled up tract because
we’re too nervous to open our mouths. Whatever it is that God
uses, whatever it is that God has purposed for you to do, doesn’t
that motivate you to more ministry? It should. If we are alive and
if we are alive in Christ, the fact that there is fruit in ministry
from things that we have done, whether it’s recording the CDs
or teaching Sunday school or whatever it is that God has gifted
you to do. To know that there’s fruit. Nothing, nothing should be able
to stand in the way of us contributing further to the work of God’s
kingdom. We can’t get discouraged. We can’t get down. We can’t quit. We can’t pout. We can’t get our
nose bent out of shape because things don’t go all our way.
There’s fruit. And that fruit is eternal. That
fruit is something that we will look at and embrace for all eternity. If we bear it at all. There’s a second element of momentum in ministry.
I suggested that there were three energizing features that urge
us forward in ministry. The second is that we are further
impelled into the service of Christ by the optimism of ministry. I mean, in a sense, it makes
the point for us. But look at verse four, such
confidence we have through Christ toward God. Having seen Christ
work, having seen who God is in all of his operation, that’s
why Paul says we have confidence. It’s not self-confidence. His confidence was the unbounded
ability to do such a work as God had done. And that’s what
we know of God, right? From all of the Old Testament
allusions to Him as the Almighty God. There is nothing too difficult
for Him. We know that He is the God that
can, if He wills, do anything. Such confidence we have through
Christ toward God. It is the unbounded ability to
do a work that God has done in the lives of the Corinthian people.
That’s what gave Paul such an utterly optimistic outlook. It
was because of who the Corinthians were and what God had done with
them. And you look at your own life.
And you say, if God can do this with me, well, then my neighbor
isn’t beyond the scope of God’s grace. My boss isn’t beyond God’s
help. My friend certainly is no worse
than me because I know me. And Paul knew himself. Such confidence he had through
Christ toward God. It was an utterly optimistic
outlook. There was nothing. God was perfectly
capable of ministering in the most profound way to anyone. We just spent many weeks considering
those CDs about the irresistible nature of God’s grace. And sometimes
I see even the most Calvinistically minded people forget that basic
element, that God can. God can if God wills. And we drag our feet and we think
that someone is… It’s almost like you better check
your heart, because if you really believe that, if you really believe
that God can, then the only thing that really can be holding you
back is a pride really that approaches
that of Jonah that would not. It’s not that Jonah didn’t believe
that God could. God, that was part of Jonah’s
problem is he knew God could. Paul had seen God do it again
and again. And that’s what gave Paul such great motivation for
ministry. It was like a constantly energizing
force in his life, constantly winding him up for new ministry.
And the more he saw, the more motivated he was to go and serve
more. The more people that came to Christ, the more motivated
he was to go out and share. And maybe that is Providence
Bible’s biggest problem. is we haven’t seen a lot of people
come to Christ. We’ve seen a few. We’ve seen
a few people come and at first they come in and they don’t know
what side of their Bible is up, if they even have a Bible. And
we’ve seen them come and we’ve seen them kind of come and blend
in. And we’ve seen them come and make a testimony of faith
in time, but not by the droves. Certainly, the great majority
of those who have come into our church are those who have been
saved already. And maybe that’s our biggest
problem is we haven’t seen it enough to be motivated to go
out and share more than more people. But as I said, if there’s
anything, if there’s anything that I want in the next 10 years
is for us I’m not suggesting we wait for evangelists to come
in. I’m talking about us in the next 10 years to open our mouths
and to share our Christ with our neighbors and our friends
and our coworkers and to see them come and to see them come
to know Christ. Paul, in talking about it, refers
to the confidence that he had just expressed, that he had no
need of credentials. Other than the testimony of the
Corinthians themselves, Paul didn’t need any credentials. That fact alone suffice to prove
the legitimacy of Paul’s ministry. And maybe that’s what has us
stopped up, is we’re wondering whether the gospel is enough.
We’re wondering whether it will work. We’re wondering whether
that in and of itself is enough to go forth and to change people. And yet, all I have to do is
point back, look over your own shoulder, look at your own life,
look at whoever gave you your first Bible or whoever presented
to you that tract or invited you to the video series or to
the film or to church or sat down with you and laid out in
very clear fashion the Gospel. Thank God for them. Was the Gospel enough for you? Paul immediately here shows that the confidence that
he had wasn’t a matter of self praise. There wasn’t any claim
to credit here. It was genuine humility that
Paul had. The apostle doesn’t claim anything
is coming from himself. It wasn’t that his confidence
was in Paul or in his giftedness or in his style or in his creativity. It was through Christ. And it
wasn’t directed at anyone but to God. That’s where Paul’s confidence
lay. It was through Christ to God. And that’s the only source of
confidence for a Christian. It can be nothing else. As I
suggested, in the course of this ministry, Paul would answer that
question multiple times. Are we beginning to commend ourselves
again? Or as we saw in chapter two, this selfless humility,
who is adequate for these things? Paul will give that answer repeatedly
through this section. Go with me on a brief tour, a
very brief tour. Second Corinthians, chapter four,
verse seven. Look at 2 Corinthians 4, verse 7. But we have this
treasure in earthen vessels so that the surpassing greatness
of the power of God will be of God and not from ourselves. Paul wasn’t deluded into thinking
that, you know, boy, I’ve got to really drum myself up and
get myself ready for ministry and get myself back in the game.
The whole thing depends on me. How foolish. 2 Corinthians 5,
verse 18, where Paul writes, now all these things are from
God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave to us
the ministry of reconciliation. Namely, that God was in Christ
reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses
against Him. And He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. It wasn’t anything in and of
Paul. It wasn’t anything so special in him. It was a gift of God. Second Corinthians, chapter six
and second Corinthians, chapter 6, verse 4, but in everything,
commending ourselves as servants of God in much endurance, in
afflictions, in hardship, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments,
in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger, in purity, in knowledge,
in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love.
It wasn’t anything that Paul brought to the table. It was
all the work of grace working through Paul. The entire book. It’s not just
this ministry section. The entire book, Paul says it
over and over and over again. He is merely a vessel. Look at
chapter seven. In chapter seven, what did Paul
bring to the table? He was a scared rabbit. Look
at verse 5. Even when we came into Macedonia,
our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side,
conflicts without, fears within. But God, who comforts the depressed,
comforted us by the coming of Titus and not only by his coming,
but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you.
Paul was just as timid as the rest of us. But he had great
confidence in the gospel. He had great confidence in God
through Christ. It’s an interesting contrast
to our own day, isn’t it? Because whereas Paul said that
his confidence was through Christ to God. Many in our own day say
that their confidence is through Christ to self. As they propose
that, yes, I was saved by Christ, but the rest of it is me. And
the motivation for ministry comes from me and the numbers that
I can stack up in my own column, that’s what propels me further
into ministry. Some would say that it’s through
Christ to legalism. Yes, I started with Christ, but
now I’ve got to really lay hold of these set of manmade rules.
It’s through Christ to anything but God. Or, and perhaps even
more poignant in our own day, it’s through anything else but
Christ to God. It’s through self to God. Some would tell you and even
some so-called Christian people would say that there are a myriad
of ways that we can get to God. There are multiple ways that
we can get to God. And that people don’t need to
hear about Jesus. They don’t need to hear about
the cross and sin and all this other stuff. What they need to
hear about is God in just some general fashion. Listen to the
Christian radio. I’ve said it before and I’ll
keep saying it until they start proclaiming Christ. You listen
to the average Christian radio. They almost never mention the
name of our Lord. And when they do, it’s Jesus,
as if he’s there on a first name basis with him, evidently. But
it’s never the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s never our Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. If they mention the deity at
all, it’s in this general fashion. God. Let God help you. What they’re really saying is
help yourself to God. Or perhaps through legalism to
God. Work your way to heaven. Obey
this set of rules. Adhere to all these man-made
standards on your way to God. Or through many paths, as I said,
to God. Or through good works to God.
Or through basic human goodness to God. Pelagianism is far from
dead. Pelagianism, that belief in the
basic goodness of man, is not dead. Pelagius is dead, but his
theories live on. Our eyes are supposed to be constantly
directed toward God. He is the source of our confidence.
And it’s through Christ alone that we own the right to rely
on Him. It’s Christ the one that’s made
it possible to go face to face with God, looking towards His
person and His throne. It’s Christ the one that’s made
it possible. And if we take anyone, anything but Christ, we’re not
pointing them in the direction of God, regardless of what we
feel. As one said it, this confidence
in the divinity and glory of his mission and in his sufficiency
for ministry he had from Christ and in the presence of God, This
was a confidence so strong and yet so humble that it did not
recoil even under the eye of God, much less under the scrutiny
of his bleary-eyed opponents. It wasn’t self-confidence. It
wasn’t a consciousness of his superior excellence. But it was
a conviction of the truth of the gospel and the reality of
the calling which he had received from Christ. And maybe that’s
it. Maybe we’re not all that confident
that we’re saved. What else would it be that prevents
us from opening our mouth and magnanimously sharing that which
was given to us for free? Such confidence we have through
Christ toward God, or do we? Charles Hodge, in commenting
on this passage, said it this way. He said it is easy to determine
whether such confidence is self inflation or the strength of
God in the soul. He says, look about you, look
at the pulpits in the land, look at the churches, look at the
various ministries. It’s easy. If it is of self. It has its natural
attendance of pride, arrogance, indifference, contempt of others.
I mean, how true is that? We will look down our nose because
a heathen won’t repent. We’ll look down our nose and
say, well, I repented and I somehow am better than you. But he goes
on and says, if it is of God, it is attended by self-abhorrence,
meekness, long-suffering, a willingness to be the least and the lowest,
and by all other graces of the Spirit. No wonder when Paul says, who
is adequate for these things? That’s exactly. He is commending
himself by his very attitude. I’ve said it before, when we
talk to men about a ministry, One of the one of the chief attitudes
is an attitude of humility point. I am not worthy of that ministry. It’s that it’s Christ and nothing
else that is ministry, it’s Christ through Christ towards God, that
is ministry and nothing else. Is labor through Christ toward
God, but there’s a third and final Momentum in ministry, motivator
in ministry, if you will. The third energizing feature
that propels us forward in ministry is simply this. We’re impelled
in the service of Christ by the fruit of ministry, by the optimism
in ministry, and thirdly, by the provision of ministry, by
the provision of ministry. Look at verse five, if you would.
Where Paul says it, and we’ve reviewed this over and over,
not that we are adequate in ourselves is to consider anything is coming
from ourselves. But our adequacy is from God,
it’s a return, as I said, to the thought that Paul alluded
to in chapter two, verse 16. You know, who is adequate for
such a thing? That Paul was in and of himself
inadequate for such a ministry was a fact that he stated from
the earliest moments of this discussion. Paul’s inadequacy
and his lack of human resources basically is what enabled or
allowed him to be used by God. Paul didn’t claim to have superior
speech or anything that from a human and earthly standpoint
might actually get in the way. of being used by God. So God’s
divine power flowed through Paul because it wasn’t a matter of
Paul’s brilliant mind or his oratorical skills or his natural
abilities. You see, when people puff themselves
up with those, they stop up the channel of divine grace. That
it’s either you or God. It can’t be both. It can’t be
both. One said it this way. He does
not claim the right or power to judge that he and his followers
are the real authors of any part of his work. They claim no credit
whatsoever. Experiences prove that his ministers,
they are competent. The Corinthian church exists.
God used them. But all their competency came
from God, from above. Paul. had pointed out in numerous
ways that his sufficiency wasn’t anything from within. He wasn’t
keeping himself in the race. He hadn’t put himself in the
race when he ministered. It wasn’t by himself. It was
purely by God and his grace. He didn’t have any power in and
of himself to accomplish or do anything, but his fitness, if
you will, for the work of the gospel, Whether it consisted
in knowledge or grace or his faithfulness or how efficiently
he conducted his ministry, it came from nothing in himself.
It came absolutely and completely from God. Look again at the passage,
not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming
from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God who made us adequate. God doesn’t go out and find the
most adequate guy. And I’ve said it before. I used
to hear people say that, oh, if such and such a musical artist
could only come to Christ, boy, their gifts and skills could
be put to use for the kingdom. How do you know what God’s going
to do with them? How do you know that the day they get saved,
God wipes out all that so-called giftedness? God is the one that makes us
adequate. God is the one that makes us
servants of a new covenant. It was God. It’s always God who
equips and fits men for the work of the ministry. It isn’t talent.
It’s not wealth. It’s not good looks. It’s not
an impeccable family tree. It’s God who makes the man. It’s
God who prepares and gifts and infuses. It’s God and God only. All of our fitness, said one,
for the work, all of our knowledge, all of our holiness, all power
are of God. They are neither self-acquired
nor self-sustained. I am nothing, the apostle would
say. God in me is everything.” And
if we’re going to be used by God, We have to prayerfully get
ourselves to the point where we clear away our own selves
and our own ideas and our own creativity and our own cute ideas
about how to conduct ministry in the 21st century. And we have
to get ourselves, by God’s grace, to the point where we can say,
like Paul, by the grace of God, I am what I am. And His grace
toward me did not prove vain, but I labored more than all of
them, yet not I, but the grace of God within me.” Paul even
says, at the end of the day, after a long, laborious day of
ministry, in the final analysis, it wasn’t even me. It was God’s
grace coursing through me. Paul knew the kind of preparation
that God puts a man through. We think that a couple of years
of seminary or being raised in a Christian home or, you know,
maybe a quick transition into Christianity from our former
heathen life, being discipled by a few good books, some tapes,
some video series. We think that’s what equips us
for ministry. Paul knew otherwise. Paul knew about those shipwrecks.
Paul knew about the beatings. Paul knew about the frustration
and difficulty and the absolute degradation that must come in
preparation for ministry. The heartbrokenness, the tears,
the labor, the sweat, the toil, even the frustration. We have a strange way of viewing
preparation for ministry, don’t we, in our modern day and age? But Paul knew. of real preparation. Paul was the last one that you
could ever imagine that would lay claim to success in ministry
because of anything that was in him. Years ago, there was a poem,
as it were, a little story penned about the preparation of the
man for ministry. It goes like this. When God wants
to drill a man, and thrill a man and skill a man, when God wants
to mold a man to play the noblest part, when He yearns with all
His heart to create so great and bold a man that all the world
shall be amazed, watch His method. Watch His ways. And it’s good
to pause there. Because, as I said, our understanding
of the preparation for the gospel ministry is puny compared to
what is really being alluded to there. As I said, we read
a few books and go off to seminary for a few years. That’s not at
all the preparation for the gospel ministry. And that is even necessarily
of God. But the poem goes on. Watch his
methods. Watch his ways. how he ruthlessly
perfects whom he royally elects, how he hammers him and hurts
him and with mighty blows converts him into trials, shapes of clay
which only God understands, while his tortured heart is crying
and he lifts beseeching hands, how he bends but never breaks
when his good he undertakes, how he uses whom he chooses and
with every purpose fuses, But every act induces him to try
his splendor out. God knows what he’s about. And that’s God’s method in preparing
a man for seminary. And with Paul, no man had ever
been prepared as thoroughly and completely as Paul himself had. Paul knew where his confidence
lay. Paul knew to look over his shoulder
and to see the fruit of ministry. Paul knew that ultimately God
was the one. But Paul also knew exactly who
had made him adequate. Paul knew who had, as it were,
had an ordination service in preparation of Paul. Paul knew
where his adequacy came from and he knew it wasn’t himself.
Paul wouldn’t have put himself through those things. No man
would. Look again at verse 5. Not that
we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming
from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God who made us adequate
as servants of the new covenant. Not of the letter, but of the
spirit, for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. He’s
talking about the new covenant there. He’s not talking about
the New Testament. Some commentators went totally off track there.
It’s not talking about the New Testament. It’s talking about
the Mosaic and the Christian covenants held out in bold relief. And Paul says God has equipped
us with sufficient qualifications for our becoming ministers, servants
of a new covenant. That’s a different kind of ministry
entirely. The covenant that was formed between God and the Jews
on Mount Sinai was called the Old Covenant. The New Covenant is the gospel.
The Old Covenant was written on, remember those stone tablets,
the New Covenant. is written on human hearts by
Christ with the Spirit of God. In other words, what Paul says,
it’s not the law, but the gospel. It’s the good news of Jesus Christ. When Paul refers to the letter
in the spirit, what he’s pointing to really and actually is two
different kinds of authorities. The letter there refers to the
written code of the law. The spirit is the operation of
the spirit that produces and promotes the gospel, the ministry
of the gospel of Christ. What he’s doing is contrasting
those two different eras, those two different operations, two
different covenants of God. One he calls the letter, the
other he calls the spirit. Paul says he’s a minister of
the former. Not a minister of the law written
on stone tablets. Paul, if he had his choice, would
choose the latter. But he didn’t have his choice,
it was God that put him in that ministry. God’s the one that
put him in the gospel ministry. And he says that it’s not of
the letter, but of the spirit, for the letter kills, but the
spirit gives life. It’s the life giving ministry.
It’s a it’s a very simple illustration. When Paul says the letter kills,
but the spirit gives life, this entire section really Paul dips
in and out from the time that he mentioned the stone tablets
to the time that he mentions the letter and the spirit and
now closing when he says the letter kills and the spirit gives
life. The whole thing is a contrast between the Mosaic covenant and
the covenant of the gospel. The covenant of the spirits.
writing on hearts of flesh. See, the law demanded perfect
obedience. How is it that the letter kills?
Didn’t God give those Ten Commandments so that we could live? So that
if we just obeyed those commandments, we would live? That’s exactly
what God gave them. And that’s exactly why they kill.
Because no one. No one could live up to that
standard. No one ever has. No one ever will. God gave it in order to point that truth
out to us that the letter kills, so that He could also point to
us that it is the Spirit that gives life. It’s not an outward
principle. It’s not a principle of law and
cold rules and regulations, but it’s a principle of life. The
spirit, the gospel gives life in a very similar sense to that
in which the law kills the spirit of the gospel. Pardon me, the
spirit by the gospel reveals righteousness that is adequate
to our justification. And it delivers us from that
sentence of death, and it produces the assurance of God’s love and
the hope of his glory in the place of his wrath. That’s the ministry that God’s
called us to. It’s a ministry of the Spirit, and God is the
one that equips each one of us, each believer that God has. God
has equipped you and blessed you with gifts to serve the body
of Christ. And if it isn’t the fruit of
the ministry that you see, trust in the confidence of the one
who gave it. And if it isn’t the confidence
in the one who gave it, then know deep down in your heart
that it’s God that gave you that giftedness. God is the one that
equipped you and made you adequate as servants. Let’s be used for his glory in
his service. Let’s pray. Our merciful King, we humble
ourselves before you, knowing that not a one of us has been
used to the full. And Father, I see faces of men
and women and young people in our midst that I believe yearn
in their hearts to serve you, to serve you completely. God,
grant us the grace to examine our hearts, to be propelled by
these truths into greater service of our Lord Jesus Christ, that
many would come to know him because of the Resolve that we take to our hearts
this very morning. It’s in Jesus name that we pray
these things.