2 Corinthians 3:7

Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as being of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who has made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory is to be done away, how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more does the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.

For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excels. For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remains is glorious. Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech, and not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is to be abolished.

But their minds were blinded, for until this day remains the same veil, untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away with in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.

Now the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Father, we ask that you, by your Spirit now, would give us insight, and that you would give us understanding of your word. Lord, that which we know not, teach us.

That which we have not, give us, Lord, by your Spirit, for your glory. That we would know you, and the power of your resurrection, and the fellowship of your suffering, being made conformable unto your death, for your glory to be visible in this world, Lord. That we would be reflections of you to those who are in darkness. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all God's people agreed, saying, Amen.

Now, before you're seated, would you mind scooting into the center if you have an open seat? Be seated. We just sang, "You are my strength, O God. You are my help, O God. You are the one on whom I call. You are my shield, O God; my life I yield, O God, for you will ever be my all in all." Paul knew that truth, and when he wrote these words in verses 5 and 6, that truth is very evident, where he says, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think that anything is of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God."

Such an important recognition that every single one of us needs to come to is the place where we see and comprehend that apart from Him, we can do nothing. Jesus taught this truth. Some of the last things He said to His disciples before His betrayal and crucifixion are recorded for us in the Gospel of John, chapter 15, where ten times Jesus says, "Abide in me, for apart from me you can do what? Nothing."

In reality, we don't like to admit that truth. We don't like to admit that apart from God we can do nothing. We like to think that we have things under control, that we can get it done, that we can just do it. We have slogans that encourage that kind of mindset. But as we walk with Christ, there is more and more of a recognition that apart from Him we can do nothing.

Now, that doesn't leave us in despair. It doesn't leave us in a place of complete inability. It causes us to look to Him in all things, or it should. It should bring us to the place of recognition where we do say with Paul in Philippians 4 that we can do all things through Him who gives us strength.

In and of our own strength, we are insufficient and unable to do anything. But with Him, we can do all things. Paul recognizes this truth in verse 6, stating that God has made us able ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. We are not sufficient of ourselves, but He makes us sufficient where we are lacking. What He wants from us is to come to the place where we honestly recognize that we need His help and call out to Him. He is there at all times to help us, whenever we need it.

He makes us able ministers and servants of the New Testament, the new covenant. As I mentioned last week, and I believe it to be completely true, you can remove the word "ministers" and substitute it with many different roles. He is the one who makes us able parents for the glory of God. He enables husbands to be able husbands for His kingdom and glory, and wives to be able wives. He empowers employees to be able employees for the glory of God. He enables us to do all those things that we are unable to do apart from Him, for His glory.

Paul draws our attention to these two covenants: the new and the old, the two testaments. If you've been around the church for any length of time, you know that our Bibles are divided into two testaments. The first 39 books comprise the Old Testament, while the last 27 books make up the New Testament. The first 39 books deal primarily with creation and God's call of a people—the children of Abraham, the children of Israel—and the work that God would do through Israel in bringing them into a covenant relationship with Him. He established His law with them so that they could be in relationship with Him, albeit a legal relationship.

A change takes place after 400 years of silence between the book of Malachi and the book of Matthew, leading to the establishment of the new covenant. We, as Christians and followers of Jesus Christ, are under that new covenant. It is an awesome thing. Paul identifies these two covenants, stating that we Christians are ministers and servants of the new covenant, not of the letter, which refers to the old covenant.

But of the Spirit, you have two different covenants: one that comes in the form of the letter, the letter of the law, and one that is brought by the Spirit, the Spirit of God. The letter is that which brings death, while the Spirit is that which brings life. By God's grace and power, we are to be ministers of this new covenant.

The word "new" that is used in the original language speaks of newness in time, meaning that it comes after the old covenant. It is newer than that which came before it. However, it also speaks of new in substance, new in quality, and new in kind. The new covenant is completely new; it is unprecedented and different from the old. Paul begins to speak about these differences in this passage. He distinguishes between the old and the new. The old was of the letter, while the new is of the Spirit.

What is the difference? The old covenant produced a legal relationship between God and man. If an individual desired to have any sort of connection or relationship with God, they had to do it through the keeping of His laws. He is the moral lawgiver, the one who established the set of rules and guidelines whereby man could come before Him. Therefore, one had to keep those laws, and if they didn't, they were condemned. The righteous requirement of the law was a punishment upon those who would not keep it.

All humanity, created by God, is under God's moral law. We all have a major problem: we recognize our insufficiency. We are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything is being of ourselves; we are lacking. The law makes that very clear. In reality, as we will see today, that is the purpose of the law: to make it abundantly clear to us that we are not sufficient and that we can do nothing in and of ourselves.

Under the old covenant, God sits as the lawgiver and, therefore, as the judge. Since we could never meet the righteous demands of the law that He gave, we have always stood under the condemnation of His law. Apart from Christ, man has only condemnation and wrath to look forward to.

Which is completely just. God is completely righteous in the revelation, the revealing of His wrath. The wrath of God, as Romans 1 says, will be revealed upon all unrighteousness and ungodliness. God's wrath will only come upon the unrighteous and the ungodly. Perfect people will not be under God's law. The problem is, there are no perfect people. And so, that's the righteous requirement.

Under the old covenant, under the letter, under the law, there is the death of hope. The death of hope exists because we ultimately have no hope of ever maintaining the righteous demands of God's law. Under the old covenant, we also experience the death of strength. Although we are told what to do, we are not given any power by the law to do it. Thus, we are without strength under the letter, under the old covenant.

Under the letter of the law, there is also the death ultimately of all life. The righteous requirement of the law is the severest punishment imaginable. It's not just a physical death. The Bible states that Jesus says, "Do not fear him who can kill only the body, but be in reverence, be in fear of Him who can condemn and kill also the soul." This refers to an eternal punishment in hell. That is the righteous requirement of transgression against a holy, holy, holy God. All humanity sits under the condemnation of that law.

Ezekiel chapter 18 reveals, through the prophet Ezekiel, that the soul that sins shall surely die. This is stated twice in that passage, in verse 4 and also in verse 20. The soul that sins shall surely die. The old covenant, although gloriously given by God, meant certain death for all.

However, the new covenant brings a greater glory. The old covenant was of the letter; the new is of the spirit. The old covenant brings to light our flaws. Now note this: there is no flaw in God's law. The flaw is in us. God's law, which is holy, just, and good, reveals the flaw in us.

There's nothing wrong with the law. It's not a bad thing; it's holy, just, and good. However, it clearly reveals that we are neither holy, nor just, nor good. We're completely lost in darkness. The reality is that without the law, there is no recognition of that.

Why did God give the law at Mount Sinai? As we'll see today, God gave it to bring to man the recognition of his lostness. We always tend to default to a thought of being self-righteous. We think we're okay, we're good.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 10, we see that there are those, and most of the world is comprised of those. In fact, this whole room is filled with people who may have been like this in the past. We judged ourselves by comparing ourselves with others. We looked around and said, "Well, I'm better than Hitler." It's pretty easy to do. I mean, it's not like we pick someone like Mother Teresa or Billy Graham when we are establishing our goodness, do we? Instead, we might say, "I'm so much better than Jeffrey Dahmer."

There is this constant comparison: "I'm better than, I'm better than, I'm better than." You may be better than 6 billion, 999 million of all the other people on earth, but the standard is not other people. The standard is God's own holy character. God's law reveals to us our complete inadequacy and our complete insufficiency. It shows us that there is nothing we can do to be right before a holy, holy, holy God.

But the new covenant is different. The new covenant is not just new in that it came after the old covenant; it is completely different. The old brought a legal relationship with God that was lived by the letter of the law. The new is established under the love of God and creates a whole new kind of relationship between God and man. It is a relationship of father and child.

How many parents do we have here this morning? Raise your hand nice and high. Parents, okay. How many of you parents had absolutely perfect children? Well, there are a few liars in the crowd. I know some of your kids, so I know that's not true.

Let me ask again: How many of you had absolutely perfect children who never transgressed? I don't see any real hands. I see the jokers in the crowd. We all recognize that our kids fail. No matter how young they are or how old they are, they fail. They fall short of the standard set forth in the house.

Now, how many of you, when your kids fell short of the standard, took them out and just killed them? Okay, good. No hands. The righteous requirement of the law, maybe. But in a father-child relationship, there is something else there. There's something more than just law that actually supersedes law. It's a love that covers a multitude of sins. It's a phenomenal thing.

I mean, you do realize that God created marriage and family to illustrate this covenant He desires to have with us. It's a living picture that we, most of us, all of us—because every single one of us here today has parents—can understand. Maybe they haven't been the best example of the relationship that God desires to have with us, but it sets at least a foundation upon which we can say, "Okay, we kind of grasp in a small way what it is that God desires with us." He desires more than just a legal relationship.

Now, wives, every one of you here today desires more than a legal relationship with your husband. If he came home and said, "Listen, the only reason I'm getting you this anniversary gift is because I'm legally bound to do so as your husband," would it fly? He might fly! That won't fly. No one really wants just a legal relationship.

So this new covenant is greater. It's different in that it doesn't only outline a new set of rules, guidelines, or laws. It's not as if God, after a couple thousand years of the old covenant, decided, "You know, this just isn't working, so let's try some new laws. Maybe we'll lower the bar." The new covenant is not just a new guideline. It's not new rules. It's completely new in that it establishes, by the Spirit of God, a new heart in man upon which is written the law of God.

The law is not cast aside and thrown away. However, the law reveals our flaws, and the flaw in us is deep. The heart of the matter is the heart of man. That's the problem; that's what needs to be dealt with. It's not that God has to take the law and say, "Well, this just isn't working. Let's get a whole new constitution. Let's get a whole new law." No, the law is holy, just, and good. It's glorious. It's given by God. But it can never make the comers thereunto perfect because we are insufficient and imperfect, in need of something new.

Now, the new covenant, when it comes, was clearly revealed to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ. He establishes the covenant; He is the mediator of that new covenant. It wasn't new in the sense that it came only at the time that He came. It was spoken of before and revealed by God hundreds of years prior to its actual establishment with God and man. The prophets foretold of this.

Turn in your Bibles from 2 Corinthians to the left to the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 31, at verse 31. Jeremiah the prophet lived in a day that was very dark among the children of Israel, God's people. They had departed from God in their hearts, and their actions had followed. The nation was filled with adultery, immorality, idolatry, and every sort of vile sin that we could imagine. It was just as dark as the day in which we live.

As a result of their sin against a holy God, and because of the righteous requirement of God's law, He was going to remove them from His promised land and take them into captivity in Babylon. But He says this to them in Jeremiah 31:31: "Behold, the days come," says the Lord, "that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah." Notice this: it's totally new in kind, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers. It's different from the day that I took them and brought them by the hand out of the land of Egypt.

They broke the covenant. Although I was a husband unto them, says the Lord, this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days. I, the initiator, will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts. Notice that the law is not done away with; the law is holy, just, and good. There is no flaw in the law. The flaw is in the heart of man. I will put my law, I will write it in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

As a result of this, verse 34 states that they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, "Know the Lord." Why? Because they shall know me from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. That's glorious—more glorious than the gloriousness of the law. I will forgive their sin; I will remember their iniquities no more. I am going to write my holy, just, and good law on their inward parts. They are not going to go around saying to people, "You need to follow the Lord. You need to know the Lord." Why? Because they are going to know me.

Now, turn to Ezekiel 36. Ezekiel was a prophet of God to the same people that Jeremiah was, but he prophesied to them in a different place because he was in the land of Babylon, in captivity due to the sin of his own people. Because of the righteous requirement of the law, he was a slave. God said this in Ezekiel 36, verse 26: "A new heart also will I give to you, and a new spirit will I put within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. You shall keep my judgments and do them. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers. You shall be my people, and I will be your God."

Five hundred years before Jesus would come, the mediator of the new covenant, the new covenant is foretold. It is spoken of prophetically. This is where we are going; this is what we are doing. The new covenant is not new in the sense that God in heaven said, "Man, I screwed up with the old one." The new covenant was planned before the foundation of the earth.

The old covenant was necessary to make way for the new covenant because the old covenant establishes our complete inability, our total insufficiency, and our absolute need for the new covenant. You have to give the old bad news before the good news. You must lay the groundwork for it and reveal its necessity.

The new covenant is new in that it establishes a relationship between God and man, that of father and child. It changes man from the inside out by giving him a new heart and not just a new set of external rules. It gives man the strength, by the Spirit of God, to do that which is glorifying to the Lord.

In these verses of 2 Corinthians 3, Paul is contrasting the old and new covenants. Why even do this? What is the necessity of contrasting the old and new covenants? Paul the Apostle came from a Jewish heritage. He was a child of Abraham, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, of the tribe of Benjamin, and a Pharisee—a religious Jewish man. After his conversion to Christ, God spoke to him and said, "Saul, I am going to make you an apostle to Gentiles."

If you know anything about a Pharisee, that is miraculous. God took a Pharisee of the Pharisees, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, and made him an apostle to Gentiles. Why is this miraculous? Because Jews at that level, Pharisees, were complete racists and hated Gentiles. God performed a miraculous transformation. A new set of external rules does not accomplish that. This requires a complete inward heart change to transform that mindset, to give him a love for the unlovely, and to make him the apostle to the Gentiles. That is a work of God, church.

Paul was used by God to establish churches among Gentiles, non-Jews, and pagan peoples in Galatia, Macedonia, Greece, and cities like Lystra, Derbe, and Iconium.

Antioch of Pisidia, and places like Corinth, Philippi, Berea, and Thessalonica, were significant locations where God used Paul to establish churches primarily among Gentiles. However, there were individuals who opposed Paul's ministry. They called themselves Christians and claimed to be followers of Jesus Christ, but they came from a Jewish background. These individuals sought to undermine Paul's work. Everywhere he went to establish a church and preach the gospel, they followed behind, attempting to destroy or uproot whatever he had accomplished through God's guidance.

Their main contention with the Apostle Paul was his ministry to Gentiles. In doing so, they accused him of not maintaining the Jewishness of the faith. They felt that he was diminishing the importance of Moses and reducing the significance of the law. Their typical method of operation was to come in after Paul had established a church and seek to attract the Gentile converts to Christianity. They aimed to lure them into a deeper spirituality through the law of Moses. They would say that if you really wanted to be spiritual and pleasing to God, you needed to be circumcised, which was the sign of the covenant of the old covenant of the children of Israel. Alternatively, they would insist that to be right before God, one needed to live according to the law of Moses and adhere to what was written therein.

This issue was discussed by the early church. The leaders at the church in Jerusalem recognized that they should not place the burden of the first covenant, the law of Moses, upon these new Gentile converts because they themselves could not keep it. Thus, it was set aside, as there was something greater than the old covenant.

Now, listen, 20 centuries later, this is still happening. It certainly occurred in the church at Corinth, as we know because Paul addresses it. Turn in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 11 and look at verse 3. Paul says there...

In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul speaks towards those who are seeking to destroy the work that he did. They claimed that Paul has diminished Moses and the law. He expresses his fear that, by some means, just as the serpent in Genesis 3 deceived and beguiled Eve by his subtlety, their minds will be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Jesus Christ, being led away to another gospel.

This situation occurred in the church in Galatia, which is why Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians. Just as it happened in Corinth in the first century, it also happens in our own church in the 21st century. I realize that even by discussing this topic, I am soliciting emails. I know this because I have been in communication over the years with various people from our church. Some have even left our church because of these issues.

There are those who will come and tell you, or tell me, that if you really want to honor God and truly experience His presence and blessing, then you need to keep the Sabbath or eat kosher. They insist that if you do these things, you will genuinely experience the blessing of God. They argue that if you adhere to the letter of the law, you will truly experience that gloriousness, just as Moses did. They claim you just have to keep the law.

I have had communication with such people in our church who have left, as well as others who have come and said that we need to go down this path. We simply have a disagreement. They will tell me things like, "You just don't understand Paul." Really? I wonder, have you read Galatians? Have you read 1 and 2 Corinthians? Have you read the book of Romans? Do you disregard what is said in these books?

Yes, the law is glorious. The Bible makes it very clear that it is glorious. It is God-given, holy, just, and good. Its purpose is to reveal our complete inadequacy. The law does not make us more righteous by the letter. The new covenant is the Spirit, which gives life and that more abundantly. Does that mean we just throw away the law? No. God said He is going to write His law on our inward parts. This is a spiritual relationship that He establishes in us.

But there were Judaizers.

In the first century, those who sought to extend the Jewishness of the faith included Judaizers, and there are still Judaizers in the 21st century. The question is, why is that so enticing? Why do people want to return to the law? It is enticing because it has a certain gloriousness to it. The law is holy, and it seems holy to do those things. It makes people feel superior and caters to our flesh.

However, what people fail to recognize when they say, "If you really want to honor and experience God, you need to..." is that it almost always boils down to two things: eating kosher and observing the Sabbath. The Bible is clear, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. If you are going to keep the law, you cannot just pick out two. There are 611 other commandments you must follow, or else you are in conflict with the law of God.

So, fine, say, "I'm going to eat kosher, I'm going to observe the Sabbath." Praise the Lord, God bless you. But make sure you keep all 611 other commandments as well. Put some tassels on your garments, and ladies, cover your heads and be quiet. Don't drive your car on the Sabbath. Let's be honest. What does the Bible say? Don't choose two to the neglect of all the others.

My question is, do you want that? Do you want that legal relationship with God, or would you prefer the father-child relationship? I will tell you what I want every day of the week: the father-child relationship. I want to be able to come before Him at any time, anywhere, because of what He did for me in bringing me into His kingdom, not because I kept the Sabbath.

What do you want? You can have it, but you have to take it all—every bit of it. And you have to keep it all—every bit of it.

So Paul continues in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 7. Was the law glorious? Let's look at this. Verse 7 states, "But if the ministration of death written and engraven in stones was glorious..." Yes, it is glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses.

For the glory of His countenance, that glory which is to be done away with, how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? If the old covenant was glorious—and it is—then the new covenant will exceed in glory.

Verse 9 states, "For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more does the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory." Even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excels. If that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remains is glorious. Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech.

Not as Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is done away or abolished. There is some awesome glory in the law of Moses, especially in the giving of the law. It is an awesome thing that God did to redeem a people unto Himself.

The children of Israel were in bondage as slaves in Egypt. Egypt in the Bible is a type of the world. The bondage that they were in is a type of sin, and God redeemed them from sin in the world. He did so by sending a man, Moses. You've all seen Charlton Heston. He looked pretty good at 80, didn't he? Going down there to Egypt, God says through him, "Let my people go."

Through miraculous powerful signs, God brought plagues, turning the Nile into blood, bringing frogs, lice, flies, pestilence, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and death upon the Egyptians. The children of Israel saw the power of God displayed in these plagues. They witnessed the awesomeness of God as He parted the Red Sea, allowing them to cross over on dry ground, and then He destroyed the armies of the Egyptians.

They experienced the mercy and grace of God as they murmured against Him, and He provided them food from heaven and water from rocks—all of that before they ever even got to Mount Sinai. Then they came to the mountain of God, and God descended in His manifest presence, His glorious presence, upon the mountain. They saw it with their eyes and heard the thunderings of the power of God.

Moses goes up the mountain as all the people are afraid. He tells the people, "Don't touch the mountain. If you touch the mountain, you're going to die." Then he goes up there. He comes back down in Exodus chapter 19, where God is going to establish His covenant with them. He tells them what He desires of them. In Exodus chapter 19, verse 8, they say, "Everything that the Lord says we will do."

Moses goes back up on the mountaintop and is gone for 40 days. He receives the tablets and comes down, laying out chapters 20 through 23, which outline God's law. He gives them the Ten Commandments. In Exodus chapter 24, verse 3, they again say, "Everything that God has said we will do." In verse 7, they establish a covenant, affirming, "Everything that God has said we will do and be obedient." Moses responds, "Alright, God has established His covenant with you. He now wants to tabernacle with you."

Moses goes back up the mountaintop for another 40 days. During this time, from chapters 25 through 31 of Exodus, he receives from God the instructions for the tabernacle so that God, the Holy God, can dwell in the midst of His people. While he is there, these same people who had promised three times to do everything God said come to Aaron, the brother of Moses. They say, "As for this Moses, we don't know what's happened to him, so make us a god that we can worship."

Aaron responds, "Okay, give me your golden earrings and all your gold." He puts it together and forms a golden calf. They begin to dance around it and worship it in a very sensual, immoral way, claiming that this golden calf is the god that brought them out of Egypt.

God tells Moses, "It's time to get down the mountain. You have a problem." Moses goes down and sees the chaos. Joshua, who was with him on the mountaintop, says, "Hey, it sounds like there's a war in the camp." Moses replies, "That isn't a war; that's bad news." When he arrives, he sees the people worshiping the calf and, in anger, casts down the stone tablets, breaking them as a sign of their breaking of the covenant.

God calls Moses back up the mountaintop. According to the righteous requirement of the law, with complete justice, God says, "Moses, I will now destroy them." It is completely just, as they broke His law after promising, "Everything you've said, we'll do and be obedient." Now, Moses intercedes on behalf of the people.

God reveals His mercy to Moses, which is evident in how He deals with the people. His love and mercy triumph over the law. Moses is in such awe of this mercy that he says to God in Exodus 33, verse 18, "I beg you, show me your glory." He has seen just a little bit of the gloriousness of God's mercy and desires to see more. This request reveals that the glory of God, as manifested in His mercy, is greater than the glory of the law that Moses has just witnessed.

God responds, saying, "I can't show you my glory. You cannot see me like that; you'll die. You're flesh; you're sinful." He instructs Moses to place himself in the cleft of the rock. God will appear and then disappear, passing by Moses so that he can see the remaining afterglow of His glory. God also promises to declare His name to Moses.

In Exodus 34, verse 5, it states that the Lord descended in a cloud and stood with Moses, declaring and proclaiming His name. The Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord God merciful." I have mentioned this numerous times, but I can never express enough how thankful I am that God did not say, "The Lord, the Lord God holy," although He is, or "The Lord, the Lord God just," which He also is. In that moment, amidst the sin of Israel, He exalted His mercy: "The Lord, the Lord God merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; by no means will I clear the guilty. I will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children to the third and fourth generation."

God emphasizes that He will be just, but He exalts His mercy, grace, and forgiveness. When Moses saw this, Exodus 34, verse 8 states that he made haste, bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped in the presence of the glory and mercy of God. All he could do was worship. He remained there for 40 days, another 40 days on the mountaintop in the glory of God.

Now, let us turn to Exodus 34. You can turn there confidently, as it is the second book of the Bible. Look at Exodus 34, verse 28.

Exodus 34:28 states, "And he, Moses, was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He did neither eat bread nor drink water." Now, that's impossible without God, at least the water part. He wrote upon the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.

It came to pass when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in his hand that he did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with the Lord. When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. The reflection of God's glory was on the face of Moses. He was in the presence of God's afterglow, the presence of His glory, and it affected his appearance. It's as if God's glory stuck to him in this divine sunburn.

When he went down the mountain, the people saw the reflection of God's glory on him, and they were afraid of the glory of God. They were afraid of Moses, so they did not want to approach him. Moses called to them, and Aaron and the rulers of the congregation returned to him. Moses talked with them, and afterward, the children of Israel came near. He gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.

When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face to cover the reflection of the glory of God. However, when Moses went before the Lord to speak with Him, he took off the veil until he came out. Anytime he would go before the Lord, he would take off the veil, and anytime he would go before the people, he would put it on.

He came out and spoke to the children of Israel that which he was commanded. The children of Israel saw that the skin of Moses' face shone, and Moses put a veil upon his face again until he went to speak with the Lord. Moses veiled his face so that the children of Israel could not see the apparent reflection of God's glory on him.

The first covenant, the old covenant, is glorious, but it is a glory that is behind the veil. Behind the veil, the law reveals our sinfulness; it reveals that we are insufficient. We cannot come boldly before God in the old covenant. The way the temple, the tabernacle, was established included the congregation and then the tabernacle, which had walls or curtains so that they could not see into the holy place. Only the priests could enter.

After being atoned by a sacrifice, one could go and minister in the holy place and then in the Holy of Holies, where God's glory was. There was a veil, and only one priest, the high priest, on one day a year, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, could go into the Holy of Holies to appear before God's glory. The veil existed because of the sinfulness of man's flesh. Moses had an opportunity to approach the awesome glory of God, but the old covenant meant it had to be veiled. It is veiled; it is glorious, but it is behind the veil. Therefore, there is a need for a new covenant.

Turn in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews, specifically Hebrews 10, beginning at verse 1. Hebrews 10 states that the law, the old covenant, having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things, can never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. The old covenant could never make us perfect; it reveals our imperfection.

For if it could, then would they not have ceased to be offered? If it was sufficient, there would be no need for a new covenant. Because that the worshippers, once purged, should have no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices, the very sacrifices of the old covenant, there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. Every time you offer another sacrifice, you are reminded, "I am a sinner." That is the point of it: to show you that you are a sinner.

For it is not possible—put a star next to verse 4—it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. It cannot remove them. There is no remission of sins under those sacrifices.

Wherefore, when He—who is He? Jesus—comes into the world, He says to God the Father, "Sacrifice and offering you wouldest not, but a body thou hast prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sins you have no pleasure." Then I said, Jesus says, "Lo, I come."

In the volume of the book, it is written of me to do Your will, O God. All the law points to Him. When He, Jesus, said, "Sacrifice and offering, and burnt offerings, and offering for sin Thou wouldest not, neither hadst Thou pleasure therein," which are offered by the law, then He said, "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God."

He, Jesus, takes away the first, the old covenant, that He may establish the second, the new covenant. By this will, we are sanctified through the new covenant. What the old covenant could not do, the new covenant does. We, the sinners, are sanctified not through the good works of man, not through the law, not through the Sabbath, not through eating kosher, but through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Now, every high priest or every priest stands daily, ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins and can never make you more righteous. The priests under the old covenant were in constant movement, constantly working, offering sacrifices from sunup to sundown. But this man, Jesus, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sits down at the right hand of God. He is resting because the work is done. He says, "It is finished."

From henceforth, He is expecting until His enemies be made His footstool, until He completely takes care of the enemy, which is death and sin. For by one offering, He has perfected—remember verse 1 of chapter 10 said those offerings could never take away sins or make us perfect—but by one offering, He, Jesus, has perfected forever those that are sanctified.

Whereof the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us, for after that He had said before, now going back to Jeremiah 31, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days," says the Lord. "I will put My laws into their hearts and write them in their minds. I will write them, and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more."

Now, where remission is, removal is—the taking away of sins. Where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. So, there’s no more sacrifice that needs to be made. It is finished.

So, what’s our response? Look at verse 19. This is so important: having therefore, because of everything that just came before it, having therefore, brethren, boldness.

To enter into the holiest, the Holy of Holies, we do so not by our good works, but by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way. This way has been consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh. He has opened the veil, and having a high priest over the house of God, Jesus is our great high priest.

What should we do in response? In verse 22, it says, "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith." The first thing we should do is draw near to God by faith. We can come near to Him not by the works of the law, but by faith, in full assurance. Why? Because our hearts have been sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. He has transformed us; He has cleaned us. So, by faith, we can draw near.

Secondly, in verse 23, it says, "Let us hold fast the profession of our hope." In some translations, it will say faith, but the Greek word is "halipsis," which means hope. Let us hold fast to our hope without wavering. What is our hope? By faith, we enter in to draw near to God, and by hope, we know that we will be with Him forever in eternity. How do we know that? Look at the parentheses at the end of verse 23: "For He is faithful that promised." Our hope is not dependent upon our faithfulness; it is dependent upon His faithfulness. Therefore, we have absolute expectation of coming good. We have hope to be with Him, so let us hold fast to that hope.

Number three, in verse 24, it says, "Let us consider one another to provoke one another to love and good works." Notice the progression: verses 22, 23, and 24 speak of faith, hope, and love. We draw near to Him with faith, we have hope because of what He has done on our behalf, and that gives us the assurance that we will be with Him for eternity. What does that cause us to do? It causes us to love Him because He loved us, and to love one another. We stir one another up to love and good deeds.

We do not serve Him and do the things that we do because we have to; we do them in response to Him in love. He says, "Do not forsake the assembling together of yourselves, as is the manner of some, but exhort one another, and so much more as you see the day approaching."

That day's coming when we're going to be with Him. So now, don't neglect the gathering together of one another, where we, in love, encourage one another to love, faith, and hope. Love—that's the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit.

Paul continues, and we wrap up with 2 Corinthians 3:14. But their minds were blinded. Whose minds? The children of Israel. Their minds were blinded, for unto this day remains the same veil untaken away in regard to the old covenant, the Old Testament. This veil is done away with in Christ.

However, even unto this day, when Moses is read—and he is read every Sabbath in the synagogue—the veil is upon their heart. Every time the law of Moses is read, they are passionate about it. They love the law of Moses; the law of Moses is holy, just, and good. But they have become enamored with the law, which is meant to point them to Jesus and reveal their inadequacy, their insufficiency. They need Him, and they can't just focus on the law because it is imperfect. I mean, it's good, but we are imperfect. So that veil is upon their heart.

They fail to recognize Galatians 3:24, which says the law is our schoolmaster bringing us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

Verse 16 states, "Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord"—who? The nation of Israel. When those people shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. When they turn to Jesus, that turn is repentance. When they turn to Jesus, that veil is taken away, and something else is taken away.

Verse 17 says, "Now the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." You see, the law brings bondage, but where the Spirit of the Lord is, He brings liberty—not a freedom from the law, but a freedom to do the law from the heart, from love, as unto the Lord.

But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of God. Under the old covenant, it is a fading glory. It's a glory that, yes, you might keep a good number of the laws—maybe you keep 605 of them—but you failed on the other 8 of them.

It's a fading glory. You'll stand before God one day, and that glory will not stand. But in Christ, we behold Him; we see Him through this glass dimly. First Corinthians 13 talks about this: we see through a glass dimly, and then face to face we see Him. That's our hope.

What is part of our hope? When we see Him, we shall be like Him because of our keeping of the law. Notice the very last words of verse 18: "even as by what the Spirit of the Lord." If we gaze at Christ, in the end, we reflect Him. His image appears in our lives. It is a law of life, says William Barclay, that we become like the people we look up to. How many know that to be true? People hero-worship others and begin to reflect their ways. If we contemplate Jesus Christ, in the end, we come to reflect Him.

So we consider Him. Hebrews 12 says He endured such hostility from sinners against Himself. We look to Him, the author and finisher of our faith. We fix our eyes upon Him, and by faith, He transforms us by His Spirit from glory to greater glory.

Now, He calls us to work out our salvation in fear and trembling, but in the very next breath, He says, "for it is God who works in us to will and to do His good pleasure." Listen, the law is not something we just get rid of; it's good, holy, just, and good when used lawfully. The lawful use of the law is to reveal to sinful individuals like you and me that we are lost and need Jesus.

We all default to self-righteousness. We compare ourselves by ourselves, and that's not wise. Second Corinthians 10 says we look around and say, "I'm better than that person." So you meet someone at work or out on the street, and you start to talk with them about spiritual things. You ask, "If you died tonight, would you go to heaven?" They say, "Yeah, I'm a pretty good person." You say, "Okay, let's test that. Have you ever lied before?" They respond, "Well, yeah." You ask, "What's that make you?" It's amazing to me how many people say, "Human." You follow up, "What's that make you?" They say, "A liar."

You ask, "Have you ever stolen anything before, irrespective of its value?" They say, "Well, no."

A thief and an adulterer who blasphemes God on the day of Christ Jesus—if he judges you with His law, will you be guilty or innocent? Will you die tonight? Would you go to heaven? I don't know. That's the proper use of the law; it brings man into the recognition of his sinfulness before God so that he will cry out for a Savior. Apart from the lawful use of the person, no, let's back up. You're not a good person. Well, you're not a good person either. I know we're both on the Titanic; it's sinking. You're going to die. We need Jesus. He is the only way.

The old covenant is glorious, but the gloriousness of the old covenant is that it points us to the glory of Christ. Amen. Let's stand and pray.

Father, thank You for sending Your Son on our behalf because of Your great love for us, to deal with our insufficiencies, to make up in us that which is lacking. Lord, to save us, we thank You for salvation.

Now, there may be some here today who recognize that their eyes have been veiled. Maybe it's a veil of disobedience or an intellectual bias because of a veil of an unteachable spirit. God desires to remove that veil and to bring about His glory in your life, and He can only do that if you allow Him to do so by placing your faith and confidence in Jesus, turning to Him in repentance and faith. Then He is able to remove that veil.

You may say, "Well, I think I'm a good person. I've done pretty good things." Listen, that might be glorious, but on the day of Christ Jesus, it will fade because He is the perfect standard, and He is the only way. He calls to you today. If you have not put your faith in Scripture, today God is speaking to you.

If that's you, I call on you right now to step out from where you're at and come up front. Some of the pastors and elders will be here to pray with you and for you. You know who you are. People's eyes are closed; they're not watching you. Come out from where you are right now. God is speaking to you by His Spirit. Do not deny the word of the Lord being spoken to you.

There may be others here who have put their confidence in Christ, but you've allowed your confidence to be shaken in Him alone. You've begun to trust in your own good works to make you righteous. Those things don't make you righteous, and you need to confess that to the Lord. Ask the Lord to work in you by His Spirit. If that's you, come forward and pray with one of these pastors who are here to pray with you. We'll give you a second to come forward. If the Lord is speaking to you, we trust Jesus that you're doing a work in this place.

Lord, we pray that You would bind the work of the enemy in here, who seeks to steal, kill, and destroy, who seeks to rob the work that You're seeking to do in people's hearts. We pray that You would bind that right now and draw people to Yourself. We thank You that Your word is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, and it cuts deep. Use Your word right now by Your Spirit, Lord. Do a work in all of us, renewing us. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.