EPIC: High-Impact Truths in the New Testament – Part 8

All right, we continue our series today called Epic. This is a big series, and it is epic because it's all about the high-impact truths of the New Testament. Today we're going to be in 2 Corinthians 3, one of the landmark passages, really a powerful passage that talks about what it means to be under a new way, under a new way of grace, under a new covenant. And in fact, today we're going to learn that we're not even qualified to minister anything else. Everything else is pretty much a joke. And that's why this room is filled. I've heard story after story, I heard a new one just this morning, story after story about how people are impacted in a negative way by do more, be more Christianity. So many feel that they are qualified to minister law. And yet the Bible says the law kills. And so if I have a ministry that ministers law, I'm killing people. Do you ever feel that, you know, some messages out there, religious messages are actually killing people? The law kills, but the Spirit gives life. And so the gospel is not meant to kill people. It's not meant to bring people to a place of great despair. That's what the law does, but God's grace builds us up in Him. God's grace is always good news. Gospel, even the word itself, means good news. There's no fly in the ointment, no worm in the apple, nothing to ruin it. So let's dive into 2 Corinthians 3, and I want you to see what Paul says here. He starts with confidence. He says, such confidence we have through Christ toward God. And I guess I would ask you, is your flavor of Christianity bringing you confidence toward God? You know, you start to believe this new covenant, you start to dive into God's grace, and you

exude a confidence that can be misunderstood. What do people say about you and your confidence in Jesus? When it comes to how forgiven you are, or how free you are, or how new you are, what do people say? They say, oh, well, that's just arrogant, or that's narrow-minded, or that's wishful thinking, or that's heresy. I'm sure we've all worn these labels at one time or another, because we have confidence toward God. And you know, the gospel is instilling that confidence. If what you believe doesn't make you confident with God, then it's not the truth. The truth always sets you free, and it always brings confidence with the Lord. That's what Jesus did. When Jesus comes along, and He takes away all of your sins, and He keeps no record of your wrongs, what are you supposed to feel? When Jesus comes along and frees you from the law and says you're loved and accepted and you're holy and you're blameless and I'll never blame you, and there's no condemnation for you, what are you supposed to feel? We're supposed to feel confidence before Him. That's the whole point of the gospel. And quite candidly, there is no other point. The gospel lifts up Jesus, and Jesus says it is finished, and the result is peace with God and confidence before God. Why did He die? Why did He rise from the dead? What is the meaning of it all? To show His power? No. He had already shown His power when He said, Lazarus, come forth. He already showed resurrection power. This is not merely about showing the power of Jesus.

He did it for you and me. He did it so that we could have peace with God. He did it so that we could be confident, not at a seven out of ten, but all the way, off the charts, confident. And so Paul begins this way in this passage. Then verse five, he says, not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God. So notice, he's willing to feel the confidence. I mean, he's willing to be sure. And in fact, in a moment, he's going to talk about hope, and as he concludes the passage, he says, we're not like Moses. We're going to speak boldly. See, Moses was hiding his face. You remember Moses comes down from the mountain. He's hiding his face from the people of Israel. Why? Because he's a bit maybe embarrassed. Maybe he just knows that this covenant is fading, and so is the light on his face. The light on his face is fading. And so the law... is good, but its glory was fading even in the days of Moses when it was first given. When the law was first given, its glory began to fade immediately because the plan was never Moses, the plan was always Jesus. And so Paul speaks with a boldness. You remember, they said the same thing about Jesus. He speaks with a certain boldness that our teachers do not have. Those experts in the temple, they don't have what he has. He speaks with a certain boldness and confidence, and then that very same confidence transferred to the apostle Paul. We see it in his letters, Paul is not mincing words.

He wants you to know you're forgiven and you're free and you're right and you're new and you're clean and you're close. And so he says, it's not from us, look, that saying you're enough, oh, you're enough. Well, you know what? You are enough because he's enough and he made you enough. And so it's tied to him. Jesus said it this way. He said, because I live, you also will live. Jesus is our life. He's our sustenance. He's our food. He's our everything. There are many that will come running to Jesus, calling him the lamb, the lamb of God. He is not just our lamb, he is our life. There are people that will argue with this very message and they will say, well, it's great that we're dead to the law, but only some of it. We're free from the law, but only some of it. I'm worried about you and your morality and your ethics. I'm worried about you. We need Jesus for salvation and Moses for morality. They call it the moral law. The New Testament never does that. They pull out 10 commands, make them separate and different, and they say, Jesus did this, but not that. Jesus freed you from this part, but not that part. They're saying Jesus is your lamb, but not your life. You see that? I'll take Jesus for his blood sacrifice, but not his life-giving spirit that is my morality and my ethics because Jesus is my life. He's enough.

He didn't just fulfill two-thirds of the law. We didn't just die to nine-tenths of the law. We're dead to the law. Romans 7 says, we're dead to the law so that we might bear fruit for God. You know what this message is? This one that we proclaim, this message is about how to bear fruit, and you can't bear fruit under the law. It is not the fruit of the law. It is the fruit of the spirit. And so people are freaked out, and I just have to say, why? Well, you're just saying we can just go out and sin. No, I'm just saying you can go out and trust Jesus. So where did you get sin from? Because I'm talking Jesus and you're talking sin. So that shows me your confidence in Jesus. Jesus, if it's Jesus plus nothing, if it's only Jesus, if it's Jesus as lamb and Jesus as life, if we don't need Moses, if you take away the tablets, if it's absolutely Christ, well then, you know, you're just going to go out and sin. You see what they're saying? They're saying, I have no confidence in this Jesus who is my life. I don't know this yet. I don't know what you're talking about. You say freedom from the law, and I say sin. No, Paul says freedom from the law, and there's victory. Paul says, literally, a direct quote, sin will not master you because, because you are not under law, but under grace. What does that tell you? Need more grace, not less. Need more victory, so I need more grace, not less. I'm not scared of grace when grace means he took that heavenly syringe and pulled out

my old self and infused me with a new self and a new life, his life. I'm not scared of that. That's powerful. That is him in me and me in him every single day. Our adequacy, it's there. Our completeness, it's there. But it's given by him, and it's real, and he did it, but you've got it, but he did it, but you've got it, so act like it. Act like you're enough in him. You're not trying to qualify. There are no tryouts. Jesus tried out. He qualified. He qualified you perfectly. Now you're blameless. us. There are no tryouts. You're in. All right. Well, verse six, Paul is telling us this. He says, God made us adequate as servants or ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. Now again, what are we seeing? There are ministers and ministries all over the planet. If you are in Christ, you are qualified to minister one thing. You have been made adequate to minister one thing. You have been qualified to minister one message. I've only got one message. Have you noticed? It's the same message every week, different passage, but same message because I'm only qualified to speak of what Jesus did. I could fill our heads with things that I'm doing. Oh, look at me and my accountability. Look at me and my attendance. Look at me and my dedication. Look at me and my commitment. Look at me and my works. Look at me and my baptism. Look at me and my, and we could talk all about me and my, but I'm not qualified to minister that message. That message puts that bony finger right back at me in a split second. You're not doing enough. You haven't reached the standard. The standard is be perfect like God. You're not even close. So if I minister that message, first of all, I'm killing people. The law kills. Second of all, I'm a total hypocrite because I am not qualified

to minister it and neither is anyone else. And that's why once you see it, you can't unsee it. And you begin to watch as there are many messages around the planet. You begin to ask what, what are they ministering? Are they ministering Jesus or are they ministering self help? Are they ministering Jesus or are they ministering sin management? Are they ministering Jesus or are they ministering behavior improvement? Are they ministering Jesus or are they ministering in unfinished work that we must add to and keep going trying to get more forgiven and get more cleansed and get more right and get more clean? Jesus said it is finished and you're qualified to minister one thing. It's so simple. Children are ministers. We say after a good meal, little kids, they say all gone and they know what that means. The meal is over. The food is all gone. Guess what? The gospel is that simple. Your sins are all gone. Any obstacle between you and God is all gone. Your relationship to the law and its condemnation is all gone. Who you were in Adam is now all gone. You're in Christ, a new creature. This is simple. It's for children. People try to turn it into rocket science and they make it cloudy and muddy and they say, yeah, but yeah, but yeah, wait for the but. It's common, right? The but is always common in religion. Yeah, Jesus did a whole lot, but yeah, he died so that you could be freed from the law, but oh yeah, you're, you're a new creation. I mean, God sees you that way, but there's always a, but and so the, but that the apostle Paul brings us is this, but the spirit, but the spirit gives life. And so he's enough and the ministry of the spirit is enough. And you'll notice that we are qualified. Literally it says not the letter. You got no business ministering the law. Does that mean you should minister part of it? Does that mean you should minister a balance? We have no qualification to do so. As soon as I bring out a three-step program or five principles or 10 ways, then all of those ways are pointing right back at me and it becomes plain and obvious to everybody. You can't do it. I can't do it. This is hypocrisy. It's weak. It's feeble. It's a joke. And the only strength is when Jesus makes us adequate. The only strength is when Jesus makes us complete. And the only strength is when Jesus makes us complete. So here we are in verse seven, the apostle Paul writes, 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. Now we already talked about the face of Moses. You remember what I said at the outset of

this message. comes down the mountain, his face is glowing, which must have been a really special experience. Congratulations, Mo. There's one problem, though. It's fading. It's not good enough. It's not going to endure. It's not going to last. And so he knows it, and out of respect for the law, out of respect for God who gave it to him, out of embarrassment perhaps a bit, he's basically saying, here it is. Here it is. Here's the covenant, the law. Have it. Take it. It's the best we've got for now. And he's looking away, hiding his face because of the fading glory. Now, you'll notice a second thing that I think is pretty critical these days, especially in the Bible Belt, maybe especially on the planet perhaps. Notice what the Ten Commandments are called here. Notice what Paul calls them. This is not my pet phrase. It is not your opinion. It is not some popular doctrine. These are ancient documents we're looking at in the Scriptures. And the Apostle Paul is saying that there was a ministry on stone. You hear that? Stone. Only ten commands were on stone. Those are the ones that Moses came down, tablets in hand. Only ten commands were on stone.

And what does Paul call them? He calls them a ministry of death. The Ten Commandments. Not the ceremonial law. Not the sacrificial system. Not the temple washings. See, this is the drivel that people are pushing today. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The law will never work, but that's just the ceremonial. That's just the sacrificial. Congrats. You don't have to sacrifice an animal. Congrats. Jesus is your lamb. Congrats. You're so, so free. But now you better get back to those Ten Commandments. You see what they're saying? Trust Jesus as your lamb, but not your life. Now what is Paul saying? Not you, me, not some trendy movement. What is Paul saying? Paul is saying that the Ten Commandments are a ministry of death and that their glory, the glory of the Ten Commandments was fading. Now in a minute we're going to see she gone. All that glory gone in comparison to the glory of Jesus and the new covenant that he brought. Here we go. Verse 8. It's coming. How will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?

Oh, I don't know if I can do this. This ministry of the Spirit that you talk about, oh, it seems so mystical. It seems so far off. No, you're one with Christ. Oh, well, I mean, you know, I could end up sleeping with somebody and blaming it on the Spirit. Well, you could blame it on the Spirit, but that's not the Spirit. The Spirit agrees with the Word, the living Word that lives in you. And Jesus is enough and He'll never lead you to sin. And the fruit of the Spirit is self-control. Well, this is just too mystical. Okay, so you're living by the Ten Commandments. Tell me what they are. Well, what do you mean? Well, I mean, like, tell me. You're living by them every day. Tell them to me. Well, let's see. What's taking you so long? Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not covet. Thou shalt not murder. Now, keep going. Oh, covet. Yeah, covet. Okay, that's four. What are you living by? I thought you were living by all... Oh, remember the Sabbath. Oh, you're not keeping that one, are you?

Okay, then tell me the nine. We're at four. Tell me the nine. We can't even come up with them. A lot of people can't. I mean, we might remember the one about idols. We might get one or two more. But I mean, if you can barely recite them, are we really living by them? Or is something deeper happening in your life? It's already happening. The Spirit is already leading you. No, He's not going to lead you to murder. He's not going to lead you to lying and cheating and stealing. No, no. So that's covered anyway. But that's a pretty low bar. Look at me. I'm not telling anybody. Are we really going to settle for the moral law? Or are we going to see there's something with greater glory? And it goes a little something like this. Jesus Christ rose from the dead. And that's the reason that I behave. Jesus Christ rose from the dead and put His life in me, His resurrection life in me. And that's why I bear fruit. No other reason. Not Moses. Not stone. Not rules. When I'm 95, I don't want to be known as a good rule keeper.

I'm letting Christ rule. It's a miracle life. The other one? Predictable. Give somebody now. Nine rules, lop off the Sabbath, give them nine rules, tell them to do their best, they'll do all right. I mean, all right, not great. Paul couldn't, he couldn't stop covening. They'll do all right. Five out of 10, six out of 10, they'll do all right. But not when they adopt Jesus's view. If you look with lust, you've committed adultery. Now it's zero out of 10. If you keep the whole law and stumble in one point, you're guilty of all of it, Jesus is telling us. I mean, Galatians and James both say it. You're under a curse if you don't keep everything. The law is all or nothing. So you see then, what a joke that is. First of all, most people can't recite the 10 Commandments. Most people can't recall the 10 Commandments. And most people aren't even really trying to live by them every day, because they're not in their consciousness. But I'll tell you what's in your consciousness. You're being led by the Holy Spirit 24 seven without interruption. You don't always listen, but you're always being led. Those who are led by the Spirit are children of God.

Romans eight. Those who are led by the Spirit. Oh, please lead me. Don't worry, he already is. He'll never stop leading. He'll never stop parenting. He'll never stop coaching. He'll never stop investing in you. He loves you too much. You don't have to conjure up his leading. Fall fresh, come down into this place. Be with us. Don't have to do any of it. He's already prepped all of that. You're one with him. He's always leading you. He'll never give up. We don't always listen, but he's always leading. And what are we afraid of here? Are we afraid of too much fruit of the Spirit? Are we afraid of too much love? Are we afraid of too much self-control? What are we afraid of here? We can have confidence and boldness when we see this message for what it is. They're gonna call you names. Oh, this is heresy. I'll tell you what heresy is. Heresy is when you're insulting the resurrection power of Jesus.

That's heresy. Heresy is when Jesus does something and says it's finished, and then you say it's not finished. That's heresy. So they can call you whatever they wanna call you, but Jesus is enough, and he's your adequacy, and he rose from the dead, and he causes you to bear fruit, and he never leads you to lying, cheating, stealing, or murder, but way more than that. He causes you to bear fruit. What a pathetic low bar, us running around, saying, boy, I've really done well avoiding stealing today. Oh, congrats. Bravo. Bravo. Look at you, law keeper. Ooh. So, we got a powerful message here with such glory. Oh, my goodness. We will never stop learning. You don't graduate from grace. I'll be 99 years old if I'm still here saying the same message, because I'm growing in it. You're growing in it.

We're all learning. It's the same message, but we get a deeper understanding of it, and we trust him in the moment more and more, and we say, you really have risen from the dead, and you really are enough, and you really are my sufficiency and my adequacy. I really can look to you. And so, verse nine, he says, again, about the Ten Commandments. He's just driving it home, nails in the coffin. Here we go. The Ten Commandments. If the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. So, he just contrasted two ministries in the past verse, right? The ministry that brings death, and the ministry that brings life. So, you got multiple choice, A or B. Which one do you want, death or life? Old covenant or new covenant? Now, he's saying the same thing in the next verse. It's the same thought. Multiple choice. Which one do you want? The ministry of condemnation, or the ministry of righteousness?

Now, notice, one ministry will slam you. One ministry will tell you, do more, be more. You're not enough. You're condemned. You're judged. You fall short. You're no good. That's one ministry. Now, notice the other ministry is not just patting you on the head, saying, no, no, it'll be all right. You're forgiven. No, more than that. You are the righteousness of God. There's no room for a nine out of 10. There's no room for, you're forgiven, and you'll squeak by. That's weak. That's half the message. You being forgiven is half the message. The other half is you're off the charts. You're the righteousness of God. You talk about confidence and boldness. When you know you're. righteousness of God, that changes things. It answers questions like, does God get angry with me? No. The meter is now moved. Does God get angry with me? No. Does God tolerate me? Yes. Does God like me? Yes. Does God love me? Yes. Oh, but he loves everybody. Does God delight in me and dance over me? Yes. Do you see it? There's no room for a partial message. You got to go all the way, black and white, no gray area, no middle ground. You are the righteousness of God. And this ministry is ministering that truth

about righteousness. It's free and you've got it and it's free and you've got it and it's free and you've got it. And when Jesus does it, he does it perfectly. All right, here we are. Verse 10 on the home stretch for indeed, Paul says, what had glory past tense, you'll notice the law, what had glory, the 10 commandments in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it. I tell you what you go on your favorite social media platform and you put down as a post, you put the 10 commandments has no glory now. I spent, I put a post up recently on one of the platforms, very similar post about the 10 commandments having nothing to do with daily life in Christ that Jesus is enough. I spent three days deleting comments, blocking people and responding to comments with long diatribes, debates. People don't want you to mess with Moses. You give me my Moses. I'll take Jesus. I'll take Jesus for his blood and his sacrifice and my ticket to heaven, but you give me my Moses. We get nervous about sin and we run to Moses, not Jesus. We can't even recite the 10 commandments, much less keep them. And then when we dive deeper in scripture, we find out nobody's keeping them. Not even Paul, not even Saul of Tarsus who had a serious coveting problem, coveting of every kind. And what did he say was the answer? Hello, put our thinking caps on here. Romans seven, the 10 commandments thou shall not covet is the prime example. The prime example is one of the 10 and he says, you want a solution? Here it is. Apart from the law, sin is dead. That's what I want in my life. How about you? Well, well, which part of the law are you talking about? I told you thou shall not covet. Well, that's one of the 10. Exactly. Who told you to pull it out and make it an exception? Go all the way with this Jesus. He is enough and he's made you enough in him. Our adequacy is from God and what we minister now has a surpassing glory. Paul says this is better. Hebrews says it's a better covenant founded on better promises. Why would we want to minister something worse when we got something better? That's just logic, common sense, godly wisdom. All right, verse 11 for if that which fades away, that's the law, the 10 commandments. If that which fades away was past tense with glory, much more that which remains is in glory. Why hang out in the past? I could tell you all about my high school years, my junior high years, my college years. I could hang out there. There are Christians that hang out in their past. Had somebody write me recently and they kept saying, I'm a Pharisee. I'm a recovering Pharisee. I felt like saying, no, no, you're a child of God. You're holy. You're righteous. I'm learning.

You're learning. Don't look at yourself as a recovering Pharisee. You are the righteousness of God. I get it. That's the humble thing to say. I'm a recovering Pharisee. But real humility, real humility is saying the same thing that God says about you. Yes, I'm learning. Yes, I've played the part of a hypocrite. Yes, I've played the part of a Pharisee. Yes, I'm in a process. Yes, I'm on a journey. Yes, I got a lot to learn, but I am the righteousness of God. And so we see here that there is just a beautiful ministry to share. with other people. And it's so important. It remains in glory. The first half of this verse is about the past. The second half is about the present. Live in the present with the glory that remains. The only glory that remains is the glory of the new covenant. The glory of this ministry of God's Spirit. That's the glory. So minister the glory. Don't minister the condemnation. Minister the glory. Don't minister the death. Don't kill people. Invite them to live boldly. Verse 12, the Apostle Paul says, Therefore, having such a hope. What does he do? Oh man, we use great boldness in our speech. We're not going to sell it to you soft. We're not going to slow play it. We're going to give it to you with boldness. We're going to give it to you. An intravenous shot. Boldness of speech. And you can be confident. Not because you are some PhD in theology. Not because you are a seminary professor. Not because you have been schooled in the best schools. You can have confidence because you know what Jesus did. And it's for children. And it's simple. And when you see it, you can't unsee it. And then you know it. And you know how to talk about it over time. You know how to talk about it. And you know how to minister it. And you know how to help people. And you know how to encourage people because it's simple. It's not complicated. And when it's simple and it's true, you get to tell people the same thing over and over and over. And you get used to talking about it, don't you? You get used to talking about the finished work of Christ being finished. And everybody else is saying this other thing. It sounds really, I mean, there's big words involved. Oh, lots of big words. I mean, your righteousness is imputed, but it's not imparted, they say. Oh, your righteousness, your forgiveness is positional. It's patriarchal. It's not actual. You know, there's terms for everything. If you want to water down the gospel, you can find 25 terms to water down the gospel. Or you can believe you're a slave of righteousness and that you're born of the spirit and that God's spirit gave birth to you. And that you

really are forgiven and free and righteous and blameless. We have boldness, great boldness, and we are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end, at the end of the Ten Commandments, the end of what was fading away. Last verse for today, we finish with this, their minds were hardened, last thought, but until this very day at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains unlifted because it is removed in Christ. You see something they don't see. Every time Moses is read with a certain mindset, it's like a veil. It's like, you know, those horses, they have the blinders right here. They just can't see. Well, these have been flipped in front. I mean, it's a veil. It's blindness. They can't see past the text to see the author of the text, who is Jesus. They can't see the prophecy in the Old Testament about him. They can't see every way he's fulfilled those prophecies. But even more, you could say, oh yeah, I'm interested in this Jesus, but still miss the fullness of what he did. Look beyond the veil. The veil is lifted in Christ. And now we see, you're my lamb, you're my life, you're my everything. I trust you. It's a free fall into Jesus plus nothing. He's our everything. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for this radical truth. It is radical, and yet it's the only thing that makes sense. It makes no sense to start with Jesus and finish with Moses. It makes no sense to start with grace and finish some other way. Having begun by the spirit, we are going to continue by the spirit. It's not that mystical. It's not that weird because we're in the family. We're one with you. We're bonded and fused to Jesus. This is the new normal. Righteousness, the new normal. Freedom, the new normal. Bearing fruit, the new normal. new normal. We thank you for this powerful message that showcases Jesus in every way. In his name we pray. Amen.